National Nurses United

NewsBriefs_Oct Alt 11/25/09 6:45 PM Page 5 B ROKER LANDMARK MASTER CONTRACT Some 13,000 Catholic Healthcare West RNs in California and Nevada ratified a seminal new master contract this fall. Opposite page: Mariel Matthews, an RN at Sequoia Hospital in Redwood City, casts her ballot. This page clockwise from left: Mercy General Hospital RNs in Sacramento sign in to vote; RNs with St. Rose Dominican Hospitals in Las Vegas celebrate their first CNA/ NNOC-negotiated contract; RNs at Community Hospital of San Bernardino give the new pact a thumbs up. On top of these new communicable disease provisions, the bargaining team successfully folded all safe staffing provisions of California's RN-to-patient law, AB 394, into the contract. CNA/NNOC's newest RN members at the St. Rose Dominican Hospitals in Las Vegas, also will enjoy the same staffing ratios as California RNs. OCTOBER 2009 Also in this agreement, the first CNA/ NNOC-negotiated contract for St. Rose RNs, the nurses made historic gains, including a professional practice committee, the PEP retirement plan, no floating between the three campuses, better healthcare plan choices, and significantly higher wages. "We are proud to ha ve achiev ed an agr eement that will strengthen our ability to provide safe care for our patients," said Portia Fiesta, a St. Rose RN. Despite the recession, the CHW RN bargaining team was able to ultimately extract a contract that included no takeaways. All RNs will receive a 20 percent raise in compensation over four years, in addition to normal step increases. Finally, master contract protections that RNs have been striving for more than a decade to attain for all nurses across the CHW system were finally realized with this pact. All the various provisions are too numerous to name W W W. C A L N U R S E S . O R G here, but include everything from protection against technologies that encroach on RN judgment to no unsafe floating to the creation of lift teams at CHW hospitals. RNs w orking for all California CN A/ NNOC-represented CHW hospitals ar e under one master contract, as are all Nevada facilities, and are linked together in the new CHW master contr act. All CN A/NNOC CHW RNs will bargain together in four years, sharing a common contract expiration date of June 30, 2013. The power of 13,000 CHW RNs bargaining together, and potentially striking together, w as a major for ce during this y ear's negotiation, agree bargaining team members. This October, CHW RNs as well as an additional 3,000 RNs in two other Catholic systems had approved and set a one-day strike, a walkout that was narrowly averted just days before it was to take place. —staff report REGISTERED NURSE 5

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