We’d like to say that our bargaining session #7 proved to be lucky. We can only describe it as unlucky, disappointing, and frustrating. The County AGAIN failed to come to the table with a response to our proposal for expanding a standard longevity wage scale at the May 21 negotiation session. This lack of progress only hinders our ability to secure a good deal before the County budget process passes us by! The WSNA nurses have been serious about bargaining in good faith from the very start. We can imagine that the staff nurses find the County’s lack of responsiveness deeply disturbing – please understand that your team does as well!

The County has a timeline for the budget approval process. We agreed in 2023 to do the work on the Longevity Committee in 2024 to prepare for these negotiations. And we agreed to begin negotiations in January of 2025 to ensure that our negotiations for the 2026-2027 contract started well before County budgetary deadlines, to ensure that the County budget was not locked in before bargaining was underway. Frankly, this is déjà vu all over again…

In addition to pushing the County to make a counter on our longevity proposal, we also had discussions regarding our proposals for workplace violence prevention and an improved bilingual premium.

Thank you to those nurses who submitted stories in support of our priority proposals – please keep them coming! 😊 You can submit them in the survey link below. We read several story submissions right at the negotiations table. There is no question we stand united in this fight for a strong, fair contract. While statements will be shared, names will not. Here are the issues where we are keeping a sharp focus:

1. Industry and market standard wage scale up to 31 steps that recognizes all years of nursing experience with no ghost steps for all staff nurse classifications.
2. Provisions of your rights and protections regarding meal and rest breaks, workplace violence and non-retaliation for raising safety and staffing concerns for the benefit of patient/client care and your professional license.
3. Continuation of reduced parking rates for KCCF nurses at Goat Hill.

Here is where you can continue to help exert the pressure needed to move the employer! We sent out the survey asking every nurse to tell us how many years of clinical nursing experience they have. This is a very quick, simple way to help your team push for industry standard longevity steps. The link to the survey is below.

One more way you can help support your team is to wear your Fair Contract Now or I support my bargaining team stickers on all shifts, any day, every day! We return to the table again for session #8 on May 29.

Follow us on our Instagram and watch our videos for recent updates us, your bargaining team:

https://www.instagram.com/phskc_staffnurses/

In unity,

Elena Schensted NFP Columbia City PH Center, Chair
Stephen Lee RJC, Vice-Chair
Evie Devera NFP Downtown PH Center, Secretary/Treasurer
Tami Nesler RJC, Grievance officer 
Kiesha Garcia-Stubbs NFP Downtown PH Center, Grievance officer
Carolyn Clark KCCF, Grievance officer

WSNA Nurse Representative: Tara Barnes