National Nurses United

14 N A T I O N A L N U R S E 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 O C T O B E R | N O V E M B E R | D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 1 WRAP-UP REPORT California EMANATE'S QUEEN OF THE VALLEY AND INTERCOMMUNITY HOSPITALS in october, registered nurses at Emanate's Queen of the Valley and Intercommunity Hospitals, located in West Covina and Cov- ina respectively, voted overwhelmingly to ratify a new four-year collective bargaining agreement. "This last year has been so challenging for nurses, and our new infectious disease language will help protect us and our patients during all infectious disease out- breaks and as we continue to care for patients during this Covid-19 pandemic," said Chaniga Bahmanou, a registered nurse who works in the neonatal intensive care unit at Queen of the Valley Hospital. The nurses won improved compensation with minimum wage increases of 14 percent across the four years. Other contract high- lights include agreement to assign dedicated nurses for meal and break relief and to require competency when floating to ensure safe staffing, and to improve weekend staffing. The contract also includes a commitment by man- agement to address workplace violence. "We fought hard to protect nurses against violence in the workplace," said Crystal Johnson, an emergency room nurse at Intercommunity Hospital. "Now we have language that holds management account- able for providing the necessary protection and resources nurses deserve." Additionally, the RNs won recognition of health care as a human right and a pledge to work to fight against racial injustice and health disparities. CNA currently represents some 500 registered nurses at Queen of the Valley and some 275 at Intercommunity Hospital. NORTHERN CALIFORNIA KAISER FACILITIES kaiser nurses at 21 facilities in Northern California held a 24-hour sympathy strike on Nov. 19 in solidarity with IUOE Stationary Engineers, Local 39. "An injury to one of us is an injury to all of us, so nurses will be standing in solidarity with our engineer colleagues as they go on strike this month," said CNA President Cathy Kennedy, a registered nurse at Kaiser Permanente in Roseville, Calif. "It's so important for working people to stand together, and we hope that with the nurses by their side, Kaiser engineers will win meaningful change for working people, and for safe patient care conditions." During the Covid-19 pandemic, Kaiser Permanente has made $13 billion in profits. However, rather than spend that money on increasing core staffing, Kaiser has proposed to float engineers among facilities. This model would institutionalize the staffing shortages that have already hurt patients and workers. Rather than accept this take- away, engineers have been on strike for nearly two months. North Carolina MISSION HOSPITAL registered nurses at Mission Hospital in Asheville, N.C. held a socially distanced action in October to demand the hospital address chronic short-staffing issues that nurses say put patients and RNs at risk. Nurses say the failure of Mission Hospital to invest in hiring enough nursing staff is espe- cially egregious considering that the hospital's parent company HCA is bringing in record profits, with nearly $3 billion in profit already this year. Nurses emphasize that these profits were earned by cutting cor- ners on patient care and hospital staffing during the deadly Covid-19 pandemic. In the past two years since HCA purchased Mission Hospital, nurses say they have noticed significant changes in the way that care is provided at Mission. Short staffing has become a daily occurrence, say nurses, and RNs are being asked to do more with less and to work with no meal or rest breaks. Since September, nurses have reported more than 50 serious staffing issues, some life threaten- ing, including orthopedics nurses taking up to seven patient assignments at one time even though the unit's staffing plan calls for five patients; neurology nurses reporting to their manager that patients could not be bathed or fed and that patient treatments and assess- ments were delayed; a nurse in the cardiac unit having 10 patients while one patient had multiple seizures; and cardiac ICU nurses being required to take three critically ill heart patients even though their unit staffing plan calls for nurses to take two patients. "HCA's massive profits and cost cutting come at a human cost here in Asheville. Study after study has shown that when nurses are overwhelmed with too many patients at once, there's an increased chance of medical errors. Our patients deserve better, and HCA has the resources to do better," said Mission RN Rae- lynn Russell. —Staff report From top: Kaiser Permanente registered nurses staged a one-day sympathy strike on Nov. 19 to show solidarity with engineer colleagues who have been out on strike for months; Mission Hospital nurses in North Carolina protested chronic short staffing during an October action. NEWS BRIEFS

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