National Nurses United

WRAP-UP REPORT California HAYWARD underscoring kaiser Permanente���s ���lemon��� of an idea to shutter the pediatrics unit at its hospital in Hayward, RNs and children set up a stand and sold lemonade on Aug. 22 to raise money to keep the unit open. Eliminating the unit would mean that parents would be forced to drive up to 30 miles north or south for inpatient pediatric care, a major burden for families with a sick child and especially for those without their own car. ���It would create an unnecessary hardship on working families to have to drive to Oakland, Santa Clara, or Roseville for care, especially for parents who have children with chronic medical problems that require frequent pediatric services,��� said Winny Knowles, an RN who works in the pediatrics unit. ���Kaiser members with children deserve access to critical care in their own community in order to thrive.��� CHICO about 700 registered nurses at Enloe Medical Center in August approved a new contract with the Chico hospital that they say will strengthen patient care standards, increase access to their retirement plans, and improve compensation that will help with retention and recruitment of RNs. ���Through the unity of our members, we���ve been able to beat back takeaways that management proposed and end up with some substantial improvements for nurses and for patient care,��� said Enloe RN David Welch. One significant gain was that the hospital agreed nurses will be able to take meal and rest breaks during a shift with the relief being provided by another RN. That is important to maintain safe staffing at all times and ensure that nurses are not forced to skip breaks to guarantee their patients��� safety. To help with recruitment and retention, all RNs under the agreement will receive pay increases of just under 7 percent over the next 2.5 years, with the first increase retroactive to last January. Further, long-term RNs with more than 25 years of service will earn addi12 N AT I O N A L N U R S E tional increases, and new nurs- From left: RNs and kids sold overtime grievance and es who have prior experience at lemonade to protest Kaiser's succeeded in getting other hospitals will receive increased staffing through planned closure of pediatrics service credit for that work, the hires of 10 RNs���all this unit in Hayward, Calif.; Texas assuring improved pay upon despite the fact that VA RNs RNs meet with Sen. Jane Nelbeginning their Enloe career. cannot technically directly son's office about staffing Enloe RNs were pleased to negotiate staffing issues. ratio legislation; RNs march win a gain in access to retireAccording to recent reports, in Washington, D.C. for Robin ment benefits at an earlier age. Hood Tax to help fund war the usage of involuntary Those who choose to do so will against AIDS. overtime has dropped be able to draw upon their dramatically. Director hospital pensions at age 59.5 without penalty. Barbara Devers, RN of the Lexington, Ky. The nurses also won improvements in VA facility filed a similar grievance using the access to sick leave for themselves, and their same strategy, and succeeded in stopping ability to care for family members, improvemandatory overtime there entirely. ments to provisions regarding continuing education, more credit for previous work Washington, D.C. history, as well as a variety of other contract hundreds of National Nurses United RNs improvements. rallied July 24 in Washington, D.C. at the ���We Can End AIDS��� march, calling for a Robin Hood Tax on Wall Street financial Texas transactions to help raise funding for more because the texas Legislature only HIV and AIDS treatment. The RNs marched convenes every other year, RNs have been with Health GAP, VOCAL-NY, ACT UP, and laying the groundwork for some time to National People���s Action to demand that the introduce a safe RN-to-patient ratios law financial sector pay its fair share toward the for the 2013 legislative session, which starts public health programs the country needs to in January and lasts for only 140 days. Most keep its communities healthy. ���Our patients recently, NNOC-Texas nurses met with Sen. without adequate healthcare, especially Jane Nelson���s office to discuss their people with HIV/AIDS, our unemployed proposed staffing ratios and safe patient neighbors, our friends forced from their lifting legislation. homes by foreclosures, our underfunded schools, poor infrastructure���all this must be Veterans Affairs redressed now,��� said Jean Ross, RN and in addition to settling their first NNU-VA copresident of NNU. ���And the Robin Hood master contract, Veterans Affairs nurses Tax is the way to get started.��� The Robin have continued to rack up big and small Hood Tax, also known as a financial transacvictories at their local facilities. At the tion tax, is a 0.5 percent sales tax on trades of Manhattan VA, RNs at the Manhattan and stocks, bonds, derivatives, and other finanBrooklyn units will finally receive uniform cial instruments that could raise up to $350 allowances after fighting this issue for eight billion a year in the United States to be spent years. Some $150,000 will be allocated to on healthcare, schools, job creation, and various nurses to cover missing clothing other social services. France in early August allowances for this time period. just adopted a 0.2 percent financial transacAt the VA facility in Buffalo, N.Y., Direction tax, and NNU nurses are part of an tor Bonita Reid, RN, creatively cited the effort to pass a similar tax in the United Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health States. ���Staff report Services Act of 2010 as part of a mandatory 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 J U LY | A U G U S T 2 0 1 2

• Cover