Our priority is a fair contract for our nurses at SJMC. In order to have a full and robust negotiations team representing the broad interest of the nurses at SJMC, we have added three additional members to our negotiating team:

• Matthew McGuire, ED
• Chelsey Roos, Walters PACU
• Richie Tiamzon, PCU

We met on July 2 to begin prep for the upcoming mediation on July 12. We had thoughtful deliberations on the priority issues of staffing, retroactive pay and wages. We will be meeting again on July 6 to continue work on the development of bargaining proposals. We understand the need for transparency and will inform our members of our proposal to the Employer, to the extent that publicizing it doesn’t compromise our strategic position for bargaining.

Your answers to our Patient Safety Survey will give us the data we need to make a strong argument to management and the public that our safe staffing concerns are real and must be addressed in our contract.

We need more responses to make the data as strong as possible.

The responses we’ve received so far tell us that:

• 3 out of 4 of us say there is patient safety problems on the unit and there is not enough staff to handle the workload.
• Fewer than 2% say their unit is always adequately staffed.
• 43% of nurses do not believe that SJMC has an organizational commitment towards resources to address safety concerns.

These numbers are appalling. It’s beyond time for management to do something about it.

Questions? Contact WSNA Nurse Representative Hanna Welander at hwelander@wsna.org or by calling 206-575-7979, ext. 3035.