Negotiations Recap for December 2, 2015
This recap details the 15th session for the renewal of the collective bargaining agreement between UWMC and WSNA, which expired as of July 1, 2015. This was the fifth session to be facilitated by a State-appointed mediator.
Discussion of Outstanding Issues
The parties worked through the mediator to discuss the outstanding issues of wages, staffing, on-call, and union security (whether to require new nurses to pay dues or a “fair share” fee to the union).
UWMC has delivered responses on all outstanding subjects, which the parties are working to resolve through package proposals. WSNA has not yet delivered a response to UW’s “what-if” package from November 3.
Next Steps
The parties agreed to meet again to continue negotiations on December 17. Since the contract has expired, the previous contract will remain in effect until the parties negotiate a successor agreement. Similar to the approach used across the University and in prior contract negotiations, UW has proposed not to make wage increases apply retroactively, meaning wage increases would not begin before the new contract goes into effect.