National Nurses United

NewsBriefs_MAy 6/2/11 3:11 PM Page 5 The nurses at Tufts worked hard to build alliances in the community, holding a candlelight vigil attended by hundreds of community, religious, and labor supporters. They held a picket, where a delegation of nurses delivered petitions signed by 80 percent of the nurses to management. They crafted a report detailing patient safety lapses at the hospital, including more than 600 reports of unsafe conditions, which they delivered to the state Department of Public Health and Secretary of Labor. And the local Workers' Rights Board, a coalition of civic, community, and religious leaders, held a hearing and issued a report in support of the nurses' call for safer staffing. At St. Vincent, nurses took out ads in the paper, published opinion pieces in the local papers along with dozens of letters to the editor, spoke on radio talk shows, and conducted daily picketing for more than 40 days, where nurses from every unit took turns walking the line at 4 p.m. each day until a settlement was reached. When the Department of Public Health held a public forum at the hospital to showcase public health initiatives, nurses used the opportunity to present testimony, highlighting more than 1,000 unsafe staffing reports that had been filed by nurses. The event was the lead story on the evening news, and was frontpage news the next day in the local paper. A major focus of the industry's public relations campaign was focused on the MNA's affiliation with National Nurses United. It produced full-page ads and flyers try and position the plight of these nurses as being part of a national agenda of NNU, and not that of the nurses themselves. The nurses embraced their affiliation with NNU and have credited their success to the collective power, not only of their bargaining unit, but of the MNA and NNU. "Neither of these achievements were possible without the power of union representation, coupled with the courage and tenacity of these nurses to stand together for what they knew they needed to provide safe patient care," said Donna KellyWilliams, RN president of the MNA/NNU. "These nurses are all heroes and they deserve the thanks and appreciation of every nurse in Massachusetts, as they made a very public fight against the entire hospital industry in Massachusetts, and they won." —David Schildmeier M AY 2 0 1 1 Southern California Nurses Win Sweet Unionizing Victory CALIFORNIA t's been a long struggle, but makes winning that much sweeter. Culminating years of efforts to win union representation to improve patient care, registered nurses at Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, Calif. on May 26 voted 269-149, a 64 percent margin, to join the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United. Saint John's RNs celebrated with hugs and cheers upon learning of their victory. "This was the most wonderful, one of the hardest things I've ever done. It was harder than giving birth!" said Lori Hammond, RN. "It's so worth it. The nurses have so much to look forward to. Our future is going to be so bright, for us and for the nurses that follow us for years to come." CNA/NNU will represent 500 RNs at the hospital, which is part of the Sisters of Charity Leavenworth Health System based in Lenexa, Kan. NNU and CNA Executive Director RoseAnn DeMoro praised the "courageous" Saint John's RNs. She noted the "excessive aggression toward the nurses for years for wanting to have rights to I 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 advocate for their patients demonstrating why nurses need a union." Saint John's RNs began meeting with CNA/NNU representatives a few years ago to discuss their concerns with the hospital administration over a host of issues, including adherence to California's landmark safe RN staffing ratio law and substandard compensation and retirement plans for the nurses. While the nurses were organizing, the hospital waged a heavy union-busting campaign against them, including denying union supporters access to talk to nurses inside the hospital, retaliating against RNs for speaking out about patient care, and backing the activities of anti-union nurses. Supporters noted that Saint John's administration tried to disrupt organizing activities even though that behavior runs contrary to Catholic principles upholding the right of workers to freely unionize. The vote is "a huge victory for us," said Elizabeth Baker-Wade, RN. "It's a victory for nurses. It's a victory for our community and patient care. It's a victory for everybody in our community who's going to come to work here, to have surgery here, to recuperate here. They're going to have excellent, improved patient care." —Staff report N AT I O N A L N U R S E 5

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