National Nurses United

WASHINGTON, D.C. I n march, registered nurses at Med- Star Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C., voted overwhelmingly in favor of ratifying a new three-year contract, winning protections to improve patient safety and nurse retention. National Nurses Organizing Committee represents more than 1,800 nurses at the facility. "We are proud to have a strong contract that will help recruit and retain nurses," said Mentwab "Mimi" Dinka, RN in the hospi- tal's float pool and a member of the bargain- ing team. "With MedStar management's commitment to hire 450 nurses each year, we will have optimal staffing so we can pro- vide our patients and community with the care they deserve." The new agreement includes a commit- ment to hire at least 1,350 RNs by 2025 as well as improvements to workplace safety, such as new workplace violence language and increased security in the emergency department. The nurses also ensured that there are no contract takeaways. The nurses also won across-the-board wage increases over the term of the contract, ranging from 15 to 33 percent. "We have been fighting to ensure that nurse preceptors are compensated for men- toring and training new nurses," said Stephanie Sims, RN in the neonatal inten- sive care unit at MedStar Washington Hospital Center and a member of the bar- gaining team. "For the first time in our contract, our preceptors will be paid for their valuable role in training the next gen- eration of nurses." —Chuleenan Svetvilas NYSNA nurses. At the bargaining table, employers didn't want to talk about wages until health care costs were settled. That all changed when Wyckoff Heights Medical Center agreed at bargaining to pay whatever NYSNA Plan A would cost. Other hospitals followed suit, and the trustees agreed to increase the amount they pay into the plan to keep our quality health care coverage. With escalating pressure and momen- tum from the health care win, NewYork-Presbyterian was the first hospital to crumble, delivering a tentative agreement that improved staffing standards and enforcement; protected health care benefits; and increased salaries by 7 percent, 6 per- cent, and 5 percent, respectively, during the three-year contract period. Several other hospitals soon followed that pattern: Bronx- Care Health System, Flushing Hospital Medical Center, Maimonides Medical Cen- ter, Mount Sinai Morningside and West, Richmond University Medical Center, The Brooklyn Hospital Center, and Wyckoff Heights Medical Center. Executives at Montefiore and Mount Sinai instead dug in. Mount Sinai's chief nursing officer insisted often and publicly that there would never be staffing ratios at the hospital. Montefiore bosses claimed it would be impossible to include emergency department ratios in the contract or invest in reopening units or preserving community health services. They tried to go on the media offensive, claiming that NYSNA nurses were being unreasonable by not accepting the same wage "deal" that nurses at other New York City private hospitals accepted, failing to realize that union con- tracts are about more than dollars and cents. At 6 a.m. on Jan. 9, after several marathon negotiating sessions that failed to deliver tentative agreements, nurses at both facilities joined the strike line. The energy was electric, as nurses greeted their cowork- ers coming off the nightshift with homemade signs, cheers, and hugs. There were three picket lines at the Montefiore Bronx facilities, where members kept spirits high with dancing and marching. Dozens of elected officials visited to support the nurses, and the media was a constant pres- ence. Members kept up the momentum out- side for three days and nights from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. as bargaining committees at both facilities were hard at work hammering out an agreement inside. When the break- throughs came that ended the strike, nurses gained agreements that included enforce- able nurse-to-patient staffing ratios with expedited arbitration and potential financial penalties payable to nurses when employers fail to uphold contractual safe staffing stan- dards. Both facilities improved upon existing staffing standards — in some areas exceeding California nurse-to-patient ratios. More details on the staffing victories at both facilities are available at www.nysna.org. Montefiore nurses won the community ben- efits and patient care improvements they had gone to the mat for. This hard-fought campaign delivered major gains for tens of thousands of nurses — at wealthy academic medical centers and safety-net hospitals alike. Guided by unity and the moral calling to improve patient care, nurses held the line for what was right for their patients and the future of their pro- fession. —Kristi Barnes A P R I L | M AY | J U N E 2 0 2 3 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 N A T I O N A L N U R S E 5 DC nurses ratify new contract MedStar Washington Hospital Center RNs win commitment to hire 1,350 nurses

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