ABOUT
St. MARY’s & DEAN Nurses UniteD
St. Mary’s & Dean Nurses United is a movement of nurses committed to improving care and care jobs at St. Mary’s Hospital and Dean clinics.
Our first step? Building our union! When we join together with a united voice, nurses secure our seat at the table with administration to bargain for better working conditions and to guide decisions that impact nursing jobs and patient care. Together in our union, we’ll raise standards across the SSM health system in Madison.
We’re ready to win our union, SEIU Wisconsin!
We’re uniting for…
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Our union is nurses coming together to improve working conditions and raise patient care standards in ways we can’t achieve alone.
Instead of advocating individually, we form one collective voice that administration must recognize and respect. We elect our leaders, set priorities, and decide how to move forward together. It’s about standing united so no nurse or patient is left behind.
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We’re organizing with SEIU Wisconsin, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) — the largest, strongest, and most effective union of healthcare workers in the nation.
SEIU Wisconsin represents thousands of RNs across the state (including our nurse colleagues at Meriter Hospital and UW Health). Together, working people across race, gender, background and industries are fighting for a more just, equitable society where all of our families can thrive. United in our union, we can exercise our collective power to win a strong union contract, improve working conditions and raise standards of care for all.
Learn more about SEIU WI and the union members we're joining across Wisconsin here.
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Just like nurses at Meriter and unionized hospitals across the country, we’ll form a representational bargaining team of nurses who will negotiate directly with administration to create a legally binding contract called a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).
Our bargaining team will take ideas from all of us to determine what we will seek to win in our CBA (also known as our union contract). Our contract will cover things like wages and benefits, scheduling and staffing practices, conflict resolution and discipline procedures, workplace safety, training and development, and beyond.
Our contract serves as a roadmap for fair and equitable treatment of nurses and better care for our patients, and ensures our voices and expertise inform hospital-wide policies and decisions.
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No! We, the nurses, are the union and our union’s strength comes from our active participation.
Together, we decide what our bargaining priorities are and what we want to do to achieve them, so that we, the bedside nurses, can best advocate for ourselves and our patients.
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Nurses today are more highly specialized than ever, and maximum participation from every unit and demographic allows us to tailor our solutions to the unique needs of each unit.
There are some issues, like health insurance and paid time off that all departments benefit from us standing together. We will select a representative bargaining team that comes together across worksites, units, shifts, and experience levels.
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Dues are an investment in our future. Union dues are the resources to engage in patient advocacy and win strong contracts. They give us the infrastructure we need to be effective, including staff support, legal expertise, and materials.
Dues are 2% of our base pay, not including overtime and differentials. We pay dues on a biweekly basis, and we do not start paying dues until after we win our union contract with the better wages and benefits we vote to ratify.
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Under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), organizing a union is a federally protected right, and it is illegal for an employer to retaliate against workers for exercising these rights. When an employer interferes with these rights, it is an Unfair Labor Practice and violates the NLRA.
Learn more about your rights to organize our union here.
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It comes down to who has decision-making power. Right now, the administration makes all the decisions about our wages, benefits, staffing, working conditions, and, most importantly, patient care without our input.
We, the nurses of St. Mary’s Hospital and Dean clinics, possess the expertise, perspective and experience needed to raise standards of care and keep patients, nurses, and our colleagues safe. With our union, we will negotiate directly with the administration to shape the terms of our work and set policies that ensure patients always come first. Decisions should be informed by that expertise, not through productivity metrics that put their corporate priorities over patient care.
With a seat at the table, the administration can’t continue to make one-sided decisions.
Learn more about administration’s anti-union campaign here. -
It’s about priorities. Right now, nearly every decision about how the budget is allocated is being made by healthcare and insurance executives, in corporate offices, far from the bedside. SSM can afford to do better, and with a seat at the table, nurses can meet with administration and have a say in resource allocation, staffing policies, training and education, and our patients’ rights to quality care.
Investing in nurses and bedside care isn’t just the right thing to do — it strengthens patient outcomes, improves nurse retention, and supports SSM’s long-term sustainability, which benefits the organization as a whole.
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We know clear communication and mutual respect are essential to keeping patients safe. Our union voice gives us a new way to collaborate with the hospital administration to protect what we like about our work and culture and make improvements.
Our union contract ensures all nurses are treated fairly, regardless of experience, tenure, or unit so we can focus on what matters most: time with our patients and delivering quality care.
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Our union is only as strong as we make it. Our power comes from our unity and our collective action. Membership is voluntary, not required, but our ability to advocate for our patients and make improvements is determined by the strength of our unit.
Further, our union gives us the support and infrastructure we need to be effective, including legal representation, support staff for bargaining, training and resources, advocacy and community engagement.
