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MaryAnn Beauchamp-Sayraf, RN RNs on Offense to Protect Michigan Bargaining Rights I MICHIGAN f you���re watching TV in Michigan, there���s a good chance you���ll see MaryAnn Beauchamp-Sayraf. The Michigan Nurses Association member, a registered nurse at the University of Michigan Health System, looks straight into the camera to deliver straight talk about collective bargaining: ���Collective bargaining protects nurses, and that protects patients.��� Every MNA member is focused on spreading that message to make sure that Proposal 2, which will permanently add collective bargaining rights to the Michigan Constitution, passes when voters go to the polls Nov. 6. This is how MNA and other labor and citizen groups are fighting back against more than a year of steady assaults against workers by Michigan legislators acting on behalf of greedy corporations and CEOs. The battle in Michigan is in the national spotlight, with observers waiting to see whether workers can overcome the unlimited secret money and lies from the other side that To see MNA member are eroding workMaryAnn Beauchampers��� power in Sayraf, RN in the some states. statewide TV ad, visit Getting on the www.minurses.org. ballot was a victory in itself after Michigan���s Chamber of Commerce, attorney general, and even governor sued to block it ��� despite nearly 700,000 citizens signing petitions to put it before voters. ���Corporate special interests have spent millions and will spend millions more to try and silence our voice to negotiate for fair wages, benefits, and working conditions that benefit us all, ��� said��Cheryl Weston, RN and MNA member who works at McLaren Lapeer Region Medical Center in Lapeer. ���We the people will not be silenced and will��continue��to advocate for our profession, our patients, and our communities.��� Beauchamp-Sayraf said the attacks on workers, including nurses, have woken many people in Michigan up to the power they have and the need to fight back. ���Opposition to amending the constitution is intense and well funded,��� said BeauchampSayraf, who spoke to thousands of fellow workers at a Labor Day rally in Detroit, firing them up about Proposal 2. ���It is up to us to share our message with friends, neighbors, coworkers, and family to ensure that our voices are heard and interests of working people are protected.��� John Karebian, MNA executive director, said fighting for the proposal in Michigan isn���t just a campaign to the MNA ��� it���s part of a movement. He pointed out that the push to erode benefits and working standards in hospitals continues while they post record profits. ���Collective bargaining is the most powerful voice for fair treatment of all employees and the most effective check on corporate power,��� Karebian said. ���If the government takes away our right to unionize, who will speak on behalf of workers? Not the corporations, the wealthy, and the people addicted to political power ��� they will continue to look out for themselves. Working people deserve better than that.��� ���Dawn Kettinger Menorah RNs in Kansas Approve First Contract T KANSAS he 325 registered nurses of HCA-affiliated Menorah Medical Center in Overland Park, Kansas in early September ratified a first contract that recognizes the RN voice in patient care matters, improves staffing standards, and offers economic incentives that recruit and retain quality RNs. ���This contract touches many bases for us,��� said Pam Darpel, an RN who works in labor and delivery at Menorah. ���It includes provisions that recruit and help keep not only experienced nurses, but nurses new to the profession.��� SEPTEMBER 2012 Menorah's RN bargaining team Darpel, who has worked eight years at Menorah and more than 30 years in the profession, also said, ���It is a positive for everyone: patients, nurses, our hospital, the community.��� W W W. N A T I O N A L N U R S E S U N I T E D . O R G The contract follows an agreement reached by more than 500 RNs at Kansas City���s Research Medical Center in June and came just days after four Texas hospitals ratified their contracts with Nashville-based HCA, the largest for-profit hospital chain in the country.�� The agreement eliminates the wage cap on the most experienced nurses and sets a wage standard that will help recruit and keep RNs,��with guaranteed annual wage increases in each of the three years of the agreement. These increases are higher than average wage increases most Kansas RNs are receiving, and the (continued on page 6) N AT I O N A L N U R S E 5