We met on Thursday, June 26 for our 7^th session. Unfortunately, management would only commit to a 3-hour session. As you know, it has been difficult to schedule sessions with management only offering very limited availability over the course of bargaining.  After having 3 weeks between sessions to prepare, management was nearly an hour late due to needing more time. Management is being paid to be at the table but continues to reject a proposal to pay our team members and demonstrates a level of disrespect by not valuing our time.

WAGES

Management continues to propose delaying pay raises to October in each year of the contract. Management tries to frame their financial proposals by pointing out reasonable wage increases over the past few years but ignores the fact that for many years, nurses hardly received any raises and at times, none.  This left the hospital significantly behind the market and the lasting, cumulative impact on individuals over the years was significant. The hospital is once again behind the market and delaying raises by half a year each year will have an impact on current staff and make it more difficult to attract and retain nurses.

INSURANCE

We continue to push for affordable and equitable healthcare benefits for nurses with families and management continues to say no.  We note the significant disparity in benefits within Whidbey and the surrounding competitor hospitals. We know that some nurses have to buy other, more affordable insurance for their families, and travel off island to seek healthcare. We have also pointed out that some nurses rejected taking a position because of the costly healthcare coverage and some are considering leaving. Affordable healthcare is vital to recruitment and retention of nursing staff.

RETIREMENT ACCOUNTS

We maintained our proposal that nurses be able to borrow from their retirement 401k retirement accounts to assist with the purchase of a home, home repairs/remodels, or other purchases that may require a loan. This is common practice to allow individuals to borrow their own money, and we understand that it would be fairly seamless for Whidbey to implement. Management has rejected this proposal.

FLOATING

Management is continuing to propose language that when nurses float and take a full patient assignment, only those floating to a different cost center within the hospital would receive a float premium. This means if a clinic nurse floated to the ED, they would not receive a float premium, but a MedSurg nurse would.  If the intent is to encourage nurses to train to work in other units to provide flexibility and support when a unit is short, why would that only apply to some nurses?  It shouldn't!

NEXT STEPS

We received other proposals and rejections of proposals from management but given the late start, our team has not had the opportunity to review those. Our next bargaining date is on July 17.

In solidarity, Your bargaining team,
Luka Cobb 
Gwen Parrick
Laura Black 
Ann Bell
Bonnie Brady

Questions? Contact WSNA Nurse Rep Sara Frey, JD, BSN, RN, at sfrey@wsna.org.