National Nurses United

NewsBriefs:October 2007 copy 12/27/07 1:01 PM Page 6 NewsBriefs Maine Nurses Secure Third, Fourth Contract Victories ontinuing a pattern of exemplary bargaining victories in Maine, RNs at Home Health Visiting Nurses of Southern Maine (HHVN) won an enhanced contract in a vote held Nov. 26 and 27 in Portland and Bridgton, and Down East Community Hospital (DECH) settled an equally improved agreement which was ratified on Dec. 13. Both employers were antagonistic from the start, according to several RNs and bargainers working through the campaign. C One of the greatest points of contention for all bargaining units in Maine has been so-called Kentucky River contract language, a clause which would prevent employers from reclassifying nurses as managers and removing them from bargaining units. HHVN filed the first Unit Clarification petition in the country, a move that was widely understood to be a preliminary step in reclassifying RNs. DECH quickly followed suit, although both employers later with- MAINE Appalachian RNs Strike Over Understaffing n 2 0 0 5, when Appalachian Regional Healthcare decided to stop paying registered nurses at its nine Kentucky and West Virginia hospitals 40 hours for 36 hours worked, RNs were so upset the hospital system broke its contract that many simply quit their jobs. RN staffing, which was inadequate before, grew even worse after the mass exodus. Two years later, understaffing has grown so intolerable that more than 750 RNs working for ARH cite the issue as their top reason for waging a three-month strike that began Oct. 1. Nurses on Dec. 22 ratified a new contract that union negotiators said addressed their concerns. The deal secures the jobs of the returning strikers. "It's not at all about the money," said Sonya England, a medical-surgical RN at Middlesboro ARH Hospital and vice president of Local 106 of the Kentucky Nurses Association, the union representing the ARH nurses. "We have severe understaffing issues at all nine hospitals. We just couldn't take it anymore." England reported that she sometimes is assigned from eight to 11 patients – an unheard of ratio in California where RNs on medical-surgical floors are allowed by law to have a maximum of five I patients. ARH nurses demanded better policies regarding staffing, scheduling, seniority, and preventing mandatory overtime and unsafe floating. Nurses had been on strike for more than 80 days, braving bitterly cold weather, rain, and snow to picket their employer. Various delegations of nurses from across the country visited the strike lines to lend encouragement and support, including nurse leaders from CNA/NNOC who presented the striking nurses with a $10,000 donation to their strike fund in November. "The nurses are highly spirited," said Zenei Triunfo-Cortez, RN and CNA/NNOC Council of Presidents member. Another Council of Presidents member, RN Malinda Markowitz, noted that the nurses enjoy tremendous community support from the small towns they serve. Miners brought them coal to burn in barrels for heat, and doctors brought nurses requiring medication but receiving no health insurance during the strike drug samples to use. "These nurses are very courageous and very determined," said Markowitz. "Once they make the decision that they're going to be out there, they're not going to give up." —staff report KENTUCKY 6 REGISTERED NURSE W W W. C A L N U R S E S . O R G drew the petitions in response to pressure from the union. Kentucky River protections have been a difficult win for other Maine bargaining units, with management representatives showing resistance and outright hostility at the idea. When RNs at Eastern Maine Medical Center (EMMC) recently won their difficult battle for the Kentucky River contract language, HHVN and DECH employers became even more determined in their losing battle against bargaining unit protections. "They were frightened by the progress made by other contracts," Bob Simpson, RN, a DECH charge nurse, confirms. New contracts at both facilities include not only bargaining unit protections, but guarantee the formation of Professional Practice Committees (PPCs). HHVN's contract additionally secured union and educational leave; improved expense reimbursement; employerpaid short-term disability; paid time off accrued on worked, and not scheduled, hours; and pay rises between 13.8 to15.8 percent over the next three years, retroactive to Oct. 1, 2007. DECH's new contract provides protections against medical technology supplanting RNs' expertise; patient need-based staffing with annual reviews; and specific improvements for a variety of individual units, such as improved on-call rates and educational assistance for the Tech Unit. Management at both facilities, like those at CNA/NNOC facilities throughout Maine, took note of impressive displays of RN power taking place during contract negotiations. In late September, 500 RNs were joined by hundreds of community supporters in a candlelight vigil outside of EMMC. In October, 5,000 California RNs went out on the first two-day Sutter strike. EMMC and Houlton RNs secured contract victories in the weeks that followed. RNs at several Maine facilities, including HHVN, threatened to take strike votes. "HHVN realized that the RNs weren't going to just lie down and take this," said Angie Eccles, RN, an HHVN bargaining team member. "They realized we were going to go all the way with these issues." Both new contracts remain valid until 2010. —staff report DECEMBER 2007

• Cover