National Nurses United

NewsBriefs.REV_April 6/24/10 2:38 PM Page 7 With hospital management still failing to budge after the June 10 strike, MNA members will vote June 21 on whether to embark on a second, open-ended strike. Meanwhile, close to 2,000 community residents have signed an online petition to support the nurses, with additional signatures collected from elected state, local, national and union officials. Elected representatives joined over 6,000 nurses on informational picket lines in early May, including state Sen. Paul Koering who told the nurses, "You've been there for my family, I want to be here for you." Sports icons from the National Basketball Association's Timberwolves, National Football League's Vikings, and National Hockey League's Wild have thanked nurses in video testimonials. But it is the individual stories of patients and RNs that most affirm the purpose of the campaign. Meenu Howland, 30, is in the last few weeks of her complicated pregnancy, which gives her frequent interactions with nurses. The resident of Cottage Grove—a suburb of St. Paul—expressed disgust at a hospital proposal to indiscriminately float nurses between units and even campuses. "We're talking about people's lives here; if nurses are not working their specialty, patients will suffer," Howland said. Even though the mom-to-be is limited to restricted activity, she uses every chance she gets to talk with neighbors and friends about supporting the union campaign. Bobby Kasper, president of the St. Paul Labor Federation and a 23-year veteran of the labor movement, said he is amazed to witness the strength of MNA's campaign. "I've never seen this strong a group of people—never," he said on the day nurses voted to reject the hospitals' contract offer and strike. "Nurses are giving lessons in how to organize that will lead to a resurgence in the labor movement," he predicted. Kasper said the campaign has built strong ties of goodwill between the union and the community. "You have helped bring to light the travesty going on in these hospitals," he told the nurses. "Patients are at risk because nurses are understaffed and overworked. Labor is with you 200 percent and the public is on your side in this fight." Nurses lining up to return to work the morning after the strike said they felt a sense of accomplishment. "This has been a very exciting experience," said Judy Syring, RN, of Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids. She gave M AY 2 0 1 0 "extra credit" to the night shift who walked picket lines with signs held high through a downpour from 2:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m. "I think it made us more cohesive than ever. We're standing together on this issue [of patient safety] more than we ever have been," she said. Jeanne Delie, RN works at Fairview Southdale hospital in Edina and went on strike in 2001 as the bargaining unit fought to achieve nursing practice language. "Fairview refused to include unit closure language that other bargaining units achieved," said Delie. "Our nurses were livid and insulted then. But it is nothing compared to now. On every round, nurses tell me 'I'll walk as long as it takes this time.'" At Fairview, Delie said, units are full of nurses wearing signature red MNA scrubs and lanyards, and buttons reading 'Minnesota Nurses Care for You.' "How many times do we have to do this before [the employers] understand we're serious?" she wondered. —Jan Rabbers University of California Nurses Continue Protests Over Unsafe Staffing CALIFORNIA espite a decision by a state Superior Court judge barring a planned one-day strike, nurses at University of California Medical Centers continue to raise the alarm about unsafe staffing at the hospitals which they say threatens patients. Nurses say the medical centers routinely staff by numbers, not by acuity as dictated by state law. For example, at the University of California at Davis, internal staffing documentation from last year found that onethird of shifts were short one or more RNs in each unit than what was required based on how sick patients were. UC hospitals also fail to staff adequately during nurses' breaks, RNs say, forcing them to choose between forgoing rest periods and putting their patients in danger. Major staffing cuts at the university system's prestigious San Francisco hospital have affected the quality of care in step-down, specialty and medical-surgical units, said Beth Kean, UC Division Director for the California Nurses Association, which represents the nurses. In the hospital's transplant program, ranked among the top in the country, patients recovering from kidney and liver replacements are being cared for under a staffing ratio of one nurse to five patients, instead of three or four patients as the law requires, Kean said. D 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 "UC administrators have repeatedly shown an arrogant disregard of the nurses' serious concerns about ensuring safe staffing for UC patients at all times," said Kean. The nurses have been negotiating with UC administrators on staffing issues since last fall. Earlier this year, a neutral fact-finder jointly chosen by CNA and the university recommended that UC provide break relief to nurses and discuss staffing changes with the nurses union before they are carried out. The university has so far declined to follow those recommendations. CNA also filed a complaint with the state Department of Health six months ago citing numerous patient care problems due to poor staffing at UC Davis, but the agency has yet to assign anyone to investigate. Maureen Dugan, an RN at the San Francisco medical center, said nurses were fed up with the University's refusal to address their concerns. "Nurses are at the core, the heart of care at UCSF," said Dugan. "Yet every day we fight to get basic resources to do our job. Clearly, the University is not interested in negotiating or working with its RNs to resolve our differences." Hundreds of nurses, including RN leaders from other states, protested outside San Francisco Superior Court June 18, the day the court handed down a ruling enjoining the strike. Kean said UC nurses are now considering every possible option to press their case for safer staffing. —Staff Report N AT I O N A L N U R S E 7

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