In this edition of news you can use we are going to talk about what can happen to union workers when Employer’s take action against them and about union busting tactics.

You may have noticed that our WSNA Chair, Jeff Dubrawski (picture above), has not been at work. With Jeff’s permission, we want to share with our members, that Providence St. Luke’s terminated him in late June. It appears to us that the allegation is unsupported, and we feel, targets Jeff for his continued union association and activities. Our union is taking all action within our ability to support Jeff through the grievance pathway and through filing complaints with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the Department of Health (DOH).

This is not the first time our union has had to file complaints with regulatory agencies like the NLRB and DOH against Providence St. Luke’s regarding what we believe is targeting, discrimination, and retaliation against our members for their union association and activities.

Between May 2024 and June 2024, our union filed multiple grievances after the Employer appeared to target our union officers including the following

• 2 grievances for due process violations (Article 19 of our contract) against WSNA grievance officer and WSNA treasurer
• 1 grievance for discipline without Just Cause for a union officer against WSNA chair
• 1 grievance for failure of the Employer to relieve a union officer of shift for contract negotiations against WSNA co-chair
• This is despite the Union giving at least 14 days’ notice and HR not responding multiple times to our follow ups

In August of 2024, our union filed a formal complaint with the Department of Health (DOH) for what appeared to be a failure of St. Luke’s to follow SB 5236 regarding how direct care nursing staff were chosen for the staffing committee. Despite the DOH releasing multiple statements stating their position on how members are chosen when there are unions in the facility, St. Luke’s actively fought against our union’s ability to choose members other than registered nurses to support this work.

• This complaint went alongside a grievance our union filed in February of 2024 for management providing unrepresented staff for the committee. Additionally, management was stating that the co-chair was to be a vote of the committee, which violated our contract language. Coincidentally, the member we were putting up for co-chair of the committee was our WSNA Chair Jeff Dubrawski and we felt it wasn’t a surprise that management was resisting this.
• Only after our union filed the formal complaint, did the Employer ask in a staffing committee meeting if the selection process could be changed to come in alignment with DOH interpretation of the safe staffing law.

As recently as February 2025, our union sent a certified letter to nursing leadership demanding that the perceived continued discrimination against union officers stop immediately.

Did you notice that it appears that most workers in the building being talked to by leadership and/or being disciplined are union officers?

It’s also worth mentioning that St. Luke’s was charged in 2012 by the National Labor Relations Board for an unfair labor practice.

What’s the point of all this activity from St. Luke’s? 

Our nurses have certain rights as union workers under section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act and in short, some Employer’s don’t enjoy that. We’ve had nurses reprimanded for alleged aggressive workplace conversations. Through the grievance process, the Employer could not provide specific examples aside from nurses discussing filing unsafe staffing forms. We’ve had nurses told they can’t wear their WSNA shirts to work despite other workers being able to wear sweaters or Hawaiian style shirts. We’ve had the Employer allege in staffing committee that nurses are bullied into writing ADOs and have had to ask the Employer to retract that from the complaint log when nurses came forward to say that wasn’t accurate.

When employers display these behaviors and attempt to target specific workers who are strong supporters of our union either for termination or promotion, it removes strong advocates from our bargaining unit. If Employers can weaken our union, they may get away with bad behaviors and make changes to the workplace that may go unreported because people are too afraid to speak up.

What does it mean to be a union officer and have a union?

Jeff Dubrawski has been your WSNA Chair and an advocate for the nurses of St. Lukes for a very long time. We’d like to share with you some of the work he did as an officer as we continue to fill our open officer positions.

Contract bargaining- every 3 years, our union contract expires. This contract is the living document that contains language related to your wages, hours, and working conditions. Our union officers, in combination with our attorney and nurse representative, bargain across the table from leadership for improvements in those.

Advocacy at the local facility level- our union officers advocate for our nurses by rounding in the building, updating break room boards, celebrating our nurse’s during nurses week, and providing education on unsafe staffing forms or ADOs (assignment despite objection forms). We know MANY of our nurses spoke with Jeff throughout April, May and June about how critical it is to file unsafe staffing forms and hold St Luke’s accountable to their staffing plan- including two charge nurses on night shift.

Advocacy at the state level- any WSNA member is encouraged to attend our union’s events throughout the year. Recently, officers Jeff Dubrawski and Erika Lee and member Macy DuCoeur attended our union’s state convention. While gaining over 10 CEUs for their own professional development, they were able to network with other union members across the state and talk about issues they experience at St. Luke’s.

Community engagement- Our WSNA officers help keep our members connected to our larger labor community. Pictured above includes an Earth Day clean up Jeff and other St. Luke’s nurses hosted. We were joined by Holy Family and Sacred Heart nurses in this effort. In the bottom right picture, Macy and Jeff attended the WSNA Labor Executive Committee meeting hosted at the Spokane Labor Council. In the top picture, multiple St. Luke’s nurses attended the Inland Empire Nurse’s Association (IENA) event at the Davenport for CEU. All these opportunities provide nurses a chance to network with other nurses and community labor partners.

Our union has other active grievances against Providence St. Luke’s including two grievances for failure to pay BSN premium to hire date. One BSN grievance is pending legal arbitration and the second grievance on behalf of all St. Luke’s nurses is at Step 3 of the grievance process (Article 20 of our contract).

Our union starts with YOU.

• Become a member today if you’re not and access the full benefits of our union membership.
• Join the Hospital Staffing Committee and advocate for staffing.
• Become a local officer- we have 2 openings left and training is provided.

Contact your Nurse Rep Alle Machorro today with any questions- amachorro@wsna.org or 206-707-2048.