National Nurses United

NewsBriefs_MAy 6/2/11 3:12 PM Page 10 WRAP-UP REPORT California (Continued from page 9) hundreds of rns, doctors, patients, and community residents showed up at a town hall meeting in May to show support for a plan that would keep San Leandro Hospital open as a full-service, acute-care facility. Supporters who want to save San Leandro Hospital have been fighting for more than three years against plans by Sutter Health, which leases the hospital from the Eden Township Healthcare District and operates it, to shutter the facility. Recently, efforts to keep the hospital and its emergency room open received a boost when local leaders introduced a plan to merge administration of San Leandro with St. Rose Hospital in the nearby city of Hayward. Officials stressed the importance of keeping open San Leandro Hospital not only for the many immigrant, elderly, and low-income patients it serves, but as a key emergency facility in the event of From top: Nurses rally natural disasters, such as an to save a community earthquake. hospital; RNs meet in Texas Texas to talk bargaining strategy; Veterans Affairs RNs in Manhattan successfully challenge a manager who bullied staff. austin, texas was the host city for the third HCA RN National Bargaining Council and Texas Leadership Council meeting sponsored by NNOCTexas/NNU. On May 11, nurses from Florida, Missouri, Nevada, and Texas joined to discuss and plan their continuing talks on bargaining strategy to win a first contract. The next day, International Nurses Day, the Texas State Leadership Council of NNOC met, attended a CE class on "Social Advocacy Trailblazers: A Proud History and Legacy." Following the CE class, nurses lobbied their state legislators for safe patient care. NNOC nurses have been petitioning lawmakers to support staffing ratio legislation, HB 2427, sponsored by state Rep. Senfronia Thompson. But as the Legislature prepared to end session with no staffing bill in sight of being voted on, nurses are asking the legislators to support an interim study on staffing ratios. "NNOC is actively organizing nurses," said RN Judy Lerma from San Antonio. "The 10 N AT I O N A L N U R S E problem is you can't just have ratios and think that everything has been solved. Nurses have to be free to be patient advocates. It goes hand in hand with collective bargaining to protect nurses. If nurses are afraid that they will lose their job, how can they speak up when they feel something is unsafe?" Veterans Affairs rns at the manhattan va scored a recent victory when they acted collectively to confront administrators over issues of workplace violence and bullying by a manager, and succeeded in getting the manager reassigned. On April 19, about 30 ICU nurses, accompanied by VA Manhattan Local Director Catherine Benjamin-Bovell, RN and NNU-VA Chair Irma Westmoreland, RN, met with the medical center director to discuss their concerns and share stories of harassment and bullying by managers. Previously, the nurses had already signed and delivered to the chief nursing officer a petition outlining their dismal working conditions. "These nurses are to be commended for standing up under pressure to make working conditions better for all," said Westmoreland. —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 will increase the number of nurses at the bedside and a new professional practice committee (PPC) to address and solve issues pertaining to patient care and staffing issues. The new contract requires hospital managers to meet with the nurse committee on a regular basis and respond to proposals to improve patient care at the facility. The nurses raised patient safety as a significant issue in contract negotiations. The new agreement raises most nurses' hourly base rate wages between 8.5 percent and 9 percent over the threeand-a-half-year agreement. It also restores the differential pay for nurses who work evenings, nights, and weekends to pre-March 2011 levels for 30 months of the agreement.  The agreement also includes a return to work for eight nurses fired during backto-back snowstorms in February 2010. Another nurse whose firing NNU claimed was unjust was also returned to work as part of the agreement. Previously, the union won back the jobs of 10 other nurses who were fired following the snowstorm. "I am so glad that those of us who were unjustly fired after the snowstorm have won our jobs back," added Linda Buckman, a 31-year RN who was fired after the storm. "It is only because we have a strong union that my coworkers and I are able to return to work with dignity and care for our patients." Contract negotiations at the hospital began in March 2010 between the nurses, then represented by an independent union, Nurses United of the National Capitol Region, and the hospital. On Oct. 6, 2010, the nurses voted overwhelmingly to join National Nurses United, but the hospital refused to recognize NNU as the nurses' collective bargaining representative until a threatened strike on Nov. 24, 2010. Negotiations then resumed in December. After negotiations failed to reach a settlement, the nurses struck on March 4, after which the hospital locked out the nurses for four additional days. The nurses were planning an informational picket at the hospital on May 6 but cancelled it when they reached a tentative agreement with the hospital on May 3. —Staff report M AY 2 0 1 1

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