WSNA met again today with SJMC and St Clare hospital leadership to bargain about the COVID and flu vaccine mandates.

As most everyone already knows nurses need to be fully vaccinated for COVID or have a medical or religious exemption by Oct. 18, 2021. Today we learned nurses that have been fully vaccinated need to send verification to Employee Central with the dates of the vaccination and a photo. If nurses submitted verification before Aug. 12, 2021 it needs to be resubmitted. HR will help anyone with the submissions.

We were told the medical and religious exemptions have not been processed yet but those that were submitted in the timeline requested will have a response by Oct. 18, 2021. They could not ensure requests submitted after their requested date would receive a response by Oct. 18, 2021.

We understand hospitals are required to follow the Governor’s mandate regarding the requirement and deadline for nurses to be fully vaccinated for COVID but were dismayed by their lack of compassion when in comes to the flu vaccination. CommonSpirit is holding firm nurses must have the flu vaccination or an approved medical or religious exemption by Nov. 15, 2021 as a condition of employment.

We are in the process of setting another date to meet, which is tentatively next Monday, Sept. 20, 2021, and will update everyone after that meeting.

In Solidarity,
Barbara

Questions? Contact WSNA Nurse Representative Barbara Friesen at bfriesen@wsna.org.