We met with Management on Friday, October 28, for our second day of negotiations. Throughout these negotiations WSNA has made proposals with the goal of retaining current nurses and recruiting new nurses. We have proposed significant wage increases, as well as enhancements to the upper wage steps so that we can recruit experienced nurses. We stressed to Management that the County is losing promising applicants because it is unwilling to credit them for all their work experience. We proposed that Management change this practice and properly credit currently employed nurses who did not receive full credit upon hire.

We have made progress in some areas, including removing the 6-month waiting period for new hires to use vacation and allowing annual vacation cash out. We also made progress removing the requirement that nurses must exhaust vacation and sick leave before taking more than 12 weeks of FMLA. But we still have a way to go. We spent much of the day engaging with Management over health insurance to come up with a good plan and premiums that are equitable to all nurses in the unit.

We are concerned by some of Management’s proposals, including eliminating daily overtime for part-time nurses.

We will be back at the table with the County on November 10.

In Solidarity,
Your Negotiation Team,
Nicole Miller and Lela Riherd

Questions? Contact WSNA Nurse Representative Michelle Moore at mmoore@wsna.org.