UW – WSNA Northwest Negotiations Recap for July 18, 2025
This recap details the nineteenth session for the renewal of the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) between the UW and WSNA, which was the final scheduled session with WSNA-NW.
Union Counter Proposals
Article 7 – Hours of Work and Overtime – The Union accepted the Employer’s new language regarding meal and rest breaks, and agreed to reference any change to the waivers in a separate MOU. With respect to double shifts, the Union counter-proposed new language that would require breaks be included in time calculation for overtime, and that the Employer would be required to track when nurses request their next regular shift off.
Article 8 – Compensation – The Union’s compensation counterproposal would increase nurse salaries by five (5%) percent retroactive to July 1, 2025, increase an additional one (1%) percent on January 1, 2026, and an additional four (4%) on July 1, 2026. The Union also maintained its proposal to eliminate certain “ghost” steps on the RN pay table.
New MOU – Voluntary Waivers – The Union accepted the Employer’s proposal to create a new MOU with language around waivers for meal and rest breaks that would supersede the provisions of Article 7 in accordance with RCW 49.12.480, stating that nurses would have the ability to waive their meal period for shifts less than 8 hours, as well as the timing of rest breaks. The Union’s counter-proposal also included language stating that the Employer would bargain with WSNA over any changes to the waiver form.
Employer Counter Proposals
The Employer presented a package proposal in which all provisions would need to be accepted in their entirety. The full contents of the package are outlined below:
- Article 4 – Definitions
- The Employer reasserted its counterproposal from June 30 for this Article, which maintains the Employer’s rejection of the Union’s proposal to define a break relief nurse position.
- Article 6 – Seniority
- The Employer agreed to withdraw its proposed language stating that the Employer would not be required to cancel travelers due to low census prior to regular staff if it would exceed what is permitted by the traveler’s contract.
- The Employer rejected the Union’s proposal to create a break relief nurse assignment.
- Article 7 – Hours of Work and Overtime
- In response to the Union’s proposal to include language requiring the Employer to track when nurses request their next regular shift off, the Employer counter-proposed language stating that such requests would be tracked in the exception log.
- Article 8 – Compensation
- The Employer’s compensation counterproposal would increase nurse salaries by three (3%) percent, effective within 90 days of ratification and retroactive to the first pay period after ratification, and by an additional 2% on July 1, 2026.
- Article 9 – Other Compensation
- In addition to its prior premium proposals, the Employer proposed to increase evening and night shift differentials by $0.50 each, which would increase the evening shift premium to $3/hour and the night shift to $5/hour. The Employer also accepted the Union’s counterproposal to increase the low census standby premium from $4/hour to $7/hour.
- The Employer proposed creating a new Sunday night premium, which would pay an additional $3/hour to any nurse who works Sunday nights between the hours of 7pm Sunday – 7am Monday. Nurses would be paid the premium if the majority of hours worked are during that timeframe. This premium would be able to be stacked with the night shift differential, but not the weekend premium.
- Article 13 – Leaves of Absence
- The Employer accepted the Union’s proposal to pay nurses for their scheduled shift on the first day of suspended operations in cases where nurses are released after reporting to work when prior notice was not given.
- Article 22 – Nonpermanent and Intermittent (Formerly Per Diem) Nurses
- The Employer proposed to update the premium figures in this Article to align with the Employer’s proposal for Article 9 – Other Compensation.
- MOU – Pre-Scheduled Voluntary Double Time Shift Incentive
- The Employer reasserted its initial proposal to strike and remove this MOU.
- MOU – Facilitated Medication re System Wide Float Pool
- The Employer reasserted its initial proposal to create a new MOU stating that the parties agree to request facilitated mediation from PERC within 90 days of ratification to develop a tiered system wide float pool for clinical staff with the goal of addressing changes in staffing needs across campuses.
- New MOU – House Bill 1879
- In response to the Union’s proposal around compliance with RCW 49.12.480, the Employer counter-proposed to update this proposed MOU with language stating that employees would be able to voluntarily waive their meal period for shifts less than 8 hours, and that the Employer would provide WSNA with notice and an opportunity to bargain over any changes to the waiver form.
- New MOU – Top Step
- The Employer proposed to create a new top step for the RN3 pay scale, and proposed that all employees who have been on the top step for at least a year would automatically be placed on the new top step.
- New MOU – Non-Monetary Steps
- The Employer accepted the Union’s proposal to eliminate all non-monetary (“ghost”) steps, which would increase the value of the non-monetary step by half the difference between the step below and step above the non-monetary where there is a non-monetary step.
- All Remaining Unopened Articles
- The Employer proposed to retain current contract language on all other remaining articles that haven’t been opened during the bargaining cycle as part of this package proposal.
In response to the Employer’s package proposal, the Union rejected the package and indicated that they would be sharing a counter-proposal via e-mail.
Next Steps
This was the final scheduled session with WSNA-Northwest. The final three UW and WSNA bargaining sessions are scheduled for Monday, July 21, 2025, Thursday, July 24, 2025, and Tuesday, July 29, 2025, and will be held in-person at the UDSB Gateway building. These final three sessions will be held with WSNA Montlake only.