National Nurses United

NewsBriefs_NOV 12/10/10 1:28 AM Page 6 NEWS BRIEFS munity leaders were educated on the issues at Sparrow. The message of safe patient care appeared on a sign pulled by an airplane at a Michigan State University football game and attendees that day at Sparrow's tailgate party were given leaflets explaining patient safety concerns at Sparrow. Media outlets in Lansing were provided with on-camera interviews and press releases at every turn, and leaders were provided with media training. Sparrow's final offer was soundly rejected by the nurses and healthcare professionals. With 92 percent of the vote in favor of rejecting the offer and authorizing a strike, nurses and healthcare professionals began making plans to walk by creating signs and signing up for shifts on the picket line. Members kept careful track of managers who tried to coerce or threaten them, and gathered enough evidence for an unfair labor practice charge to be filed with the National Labor Relations Board. The ULP was filed in early November to protect the rights of members Sparrow RNs Win Landmark Contract with Ratios MICHIGAN A fter months of solid teamwork, the 2,100 nurses and healthcare professionals at Sparrow Hospital (PECSH) in Lansing, Mich., represented by the Michigan Nurses Association, won in November a new contract that features landmark staffing language to greatly improve safe patient care. The nurses and healthcare professionals entered negotiations with the goal of increasing staffing at the hospital after reports that staffing had fallen to dangerously low levels. To bolster their efforts, MNA released a report identifying multiple concerns with safe staffing practices in the hospital. The report, "Misplaced Priorities: The Deteriorating Condition of Safe Patient Care at Sparrow Hospital," documented 1,400 instances of unsafe patient care based on Documentation of Staffing Concern forms that were filed by nurses and other 6 N AT I O N A L N U R S E healthcare professionals at Sparrow from 2009 and 2010. The report was submitted to the Michigan Department of Community Health with a request to investigate the staffing at Sparrow Hospital because management had ignored both the staffing guidelines in the current contract and the short staffing forms. Preparations for the fight for safe patient care included an aggressive internal organizing campaign and educating the Bargaining Action Teams in their role as the communications and mobilization link to members. PECSH members began to turn up the heat on Sparrow, with a "wear red" campaign inside the hospital, leafleting at a home Michigan State University football game and Sparrow tailgate party, and preparation for a rally at the hospital's major fundraising gala. Alerting the community became a top priority. A strategic campaign using television and newspaper ads shared MNA's commitment to safe patient care with the community. Elected officials and other comW 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 and stop the hospital's desperate attempt to intimidate and coerce members who proudly stood up against the boss. A tentative agreement with unparalleled staffing language was put to vote on Monday and Tuesday, Nov. 29 and 30. The agreement includes nurse-to-patient ratios and tech-to-patient ratios, and a penalty of $200 for every four hours a shift is short staffed. "I am proud of the solidarity our members demonstrated at Sparrow," said John Karebian, MNA's executive director. "This employer witnessed firsthand that our members won't idly sit by and watch the hospital lower standards in their contracts. Their unity led to improvements in the employer's proposal on pension, health insurance, and staffing that ultimately sealed a deal." Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of National Nurses United, hailed the agreement in The Washington Post as an "enormous victory for patients." —Ann Kettering Sincox NOVEMBER 2010

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