Our picket was a powerful display of nurses, our community, our legislators, and our fellow unionists standing together for safety. We went into mediation this week with high hopes that Virginia Mason read the papers, saw the news, and heard our voices loudly and clearly, and that we would finally be heard regarding the dire circumstances at our beloved hospital. It was made extremely clear to us in very short order that CommonSpirit does not want to acknowledge the harm it is causing by not hearing our concerns about staffing and safety.

When we say that we are speaking up for safety, we mean unacceptable and avoidable workplace violence incidents, but also the safety of the patients for whom we care – and that means safe staffing levels. We mean safety for our community which relies on us and trusts us to do the very best we can during some of the most vulnerable and frightening situations that they may experience in their lifetimes.

Because federal mediation is a confidential process, we can't give specific details here, but management is still refusing to meet us in a reasonable place around safety and wages that would serve to recruit and retain nurses at Virginia Mason. It is time for us to consider our next steps. Learn more about those next steps here.

On today’s 6pm weekly update meeting, we will be discussing the past two days of mediation, what escalation from here will look like, and what we all need to do so we can continue to fight for our patients’ outcomes, our lives, and the future of our profession.

Join us at 6 p.m., even if you can only listen.

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Action Items:

Legislative listening sessions:

Local legislators – some of whom spoke at our rally! – want to hear more of the very important conversation about safety in the healthcare setting. Save the date for a virtual listening session Friday, Oct. 27 from 1900-2000 and share your safety concerns/ stories of what it is like to work short-staffed here:

If you have experienced or witnessed workplace violence, or have been put in an unacceptable situation due to short staffing, your legislators ABSOLUTELY need to hear from you.

A link to join will be sent to everyone via text before the meeting.

If you think you need to update your contact information on file with WSNA, you can do that here: Update your member record - WSNA

Questions or comments, please contact your Nurse Representative, Barbara Friesen bfriesen@wsna.org or Organizer Crystal Doll at  cdoll@wsna.org.