National Nurses United

NewsBriefs_OCT 2/9/12 5:30 PM Page 7 with healthcare and community groups has waged a years-long campaign in order to ensure that St. Luke's Hospital, one of Sutter's California Pacific Medical Center's campuses, has remained operating despite CPMC's original plan to close it in 2007. "We're fighting for our patients and fighting for our profession," said Debbie Pease, a bargaining team member who has worked as a labor and delivery RN for 32 years, during a strike rally at her workplace of Alta Bates Hospital in Berkeley. "We will not be silenced. We have gone to the bargaining table with the goal of negotiating a fair contract, but it is obvious Sutter has no interest in settling this contract. Clearly, Sutter's only interest is to Putting the "Win" in Windy City R ILLINOIS egistered nurses at Jackson Park Hospital and Medical Center on Chicago's South Side voted by 85 percent on Jan. 6 to join National Nurses United, the nation's largest union and professional association of RNs. The Jackson Park RNs voted 94 to 16 to join NNU. The secret ballot election was conducted by the National Labor Relations Board. NNU will represent some 150 RNs at the hospital. "This is a victory for the nurses and the South Side of Chicago," said Jackson Park RN Leshaun Williams. "Together we realized unity is the best way to advocate for our patients and preserve respect for the registered nurse." The election win also continues the growth of NNU as the voice of Chicagoarea RNs. NNU now represents nearly 4,200 RNs in greater Chicago, including nurses at the nearby University of Chicago DECEMBER 2011 Medical Center where RNs last year won their first NNU contract with significant gains in patient care protections and RN standards. Safe staffing and respect for the RNs were also key issues for Jackson Park RNs. The hospital had been in the news lately for charges of harassment against RNs, and recently settled an employment racial discrimination suit for making AfricanAmerican female workers perform assignments their male counterparts were not required to do. Since its founding in December 2009, NNU has won representation for more than 11,000 RNs at 27 hospitals in nine states. Nationally, NNU represents 170,000 RNs. "I am so excited about our victory and what this means for the future of nursing at Jackson Park," said Patricia Drake, a Jackson Park RN. "The election was long overdue and with NNU we will have a voice with collective bargaining to enable RNs to deliver the best quality care possible for our patients." —Staff report 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 increase their obscene profits even further with no apparent concern for patient safety or the overall well-being of their nurses." Sutter has adopted this hard-line stance against the nurses even as it has posted $3.7 billion in profits since 2005 and pays many of its top executives more than $1 million a year. Sutter CEO Pat Fry took home $4.7 million in compensation last year, a pay increase of 20 percent over the previous year. And a December 2011 report by the University of California Hasting College of the Law found that the chain's California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco spends far less on charity care than other hospitals in the city, despite being the most profitable private hospital. In the Southern California port city of Long Beach, the 2,000 registered nurses of Long Beach Memorial Medical Center and Miller Children's Hospital, the state's second-largest private hospital, joined the strike lines to protest management's failure during contract negotiations to ensure safe staffing at all times, as required by law, instead of forcing nurses to double up patient assignments when coworkers go on needed meal or rest breaks. Allison Miller, an adult oncology RN at Long Beach Memorial, knows of situations where a code blue has been called while the patient's regularly assigned RN was on break. "It was a turning point for me," said Miller. "When this happens, it always reminds us how important it is to be fully staffed every second of every shift so that we are not depending on 'luck' to make sure patients are safely cared for." Matt Tom, a coronary care unit RN, echoed Miller's concerns about nurses doubling up on patient assignments when a coworker goes on break. "We're constantly worrying about our patients," said Tom. "Our coworkers tell us where they're going to be so we can find them if something happens." Long Beach nurses are also pushing the hospital to implement safe lifting policies to protect workers and patients for injuries and falls, and which is now required under a new state law sponsored by CNA last year. "I'm just so proud to work with a group of nurses like you all," said Mary Bailey, a longtime RN at Long Beach Memorial and bargaining team member. "We will prevail. All we need to do is stay together and stay strong." —Staff report N AT I O N A L N U R S E 7

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