WRAP-UP REPORT
California -- After eight tough months of negotiations that included protests at hospital board meetings and an overwhelming vote of no confidence in management, the registered nurses and service and technical staff of
Palomar Health District in August ratified a new four-year contract.
Florida -- Florida nurses, some of the newest unionized members of National Nurses United, are busy exercising the just cause discipline rights guaranteed in their collective bargaining contracts. Nurse representatives for 12 Florida hospitals gathered in Tampa on Aug. 8 for an all-day training session on enforcing just cause. In recent months, a number of Florida nurses who
were unfairly disciplined won their just cause grievances, along with reinstatement of their positions and back pay.
National -- To kickstart stalled bargaining talks with Community Health Systems at five newly organized hospitals in California, West Virginia, and Ohio, CHS registered nurses in August launched a public campaign against the Tennessee-based hospital chain, the second-largest for-profit system in the country and one of the wealthiest.
Texas -- Registered nurses at Houston's Cypress Fairbanks Medical Center voted Aug. 26 to approve a new contract with the hospital, extending the only private union contract for nurses in America's fourth-largest city.
