National Nurses United

NewsBriefs:Public 8/15/07 3:28 PM Page 4 NewsBriefs Cindy Everett and Benjamin Anozie, both ICU RNs at Community Hospital of San Bernardino, work the bullhorns during the July CHW picket. CHW RNs Step Up Bargaining Pressure egistered n u rses working for Catholic Healthcare West facilities continued to apply needed pressure to the chain during negotiations for nine Southern California facilities, staging statewide informational pickets in late July when talks stalled over key issues of ratios, healthcare benefits, and patient care. The Southern California contracts, which cover about 3,000 RNs, expired in late June and nurses have been bargaining since April. "CHW needs to understand that we nurses, both in Northern and Southern California, are totally committed to fighting for what we need to be able to properly care for our patients," said Allen Fitzpatrick, a CNA/NNOC board member and RN at San Francisco's St. Mary's Medical Center who is helping lead the nurse negotiating team. "We won't stop." The July informational pickets succeeded in moving negotiations along; not long after R the action, CHW agreed to include provisions for following state-mandated safe staffing ratios in the contract. But other big deal-breaker issues remain, namely CHW's proposal to erode healthcare benefits by requiring all nurses to move onto an HMO plan and begin paying an unspecified amount out of pocket toward healthcare; CHW's refusal to ensure that the union and contract remains in force if it sells a hospital; and CHW's refusal to time the expiration of the Southern California contracts with those in Northern California so that all CHW nurses can bargain in 2009 at one master table. CNA/NNOC represents nurses at more than 25 CHW facilities throughout California. In addition, negotiators report that CHW has been recalcitrant on other proposals important to nurses, including establishing lift teams to prevent patient and nurse injuries; wage, pension, and retiree health CALIFORNIA 4 REGISTERED NURSE W W W. C A L N U R S E S . O R G proposals; and an organizing agreement to provide a framework for organizing more CHW nurses. Marina Bass is an RN negotiator who works in telemetry at San Gabriel Valley Medical Center, a hospital that CHW is in the process of selling to a for-profit company. She said that the nurses' top priority is to ensure that the interests and needs of the community are met by the new owners, and that necessitates a strong contract for nurses to protect their jobs and ability to provide good patient care. "The bottom line is you want to go to work every day knowing that you're doing the right thing and that your employer supports you and is doing the right thing," said Bass. "We need to know the new employer is on the same page as us." If progress is not made on these key issues, say RN negotiators, CHW can anticipate more actions and possibly even a strike. —staff report J U LY | A U G U S T 2 0 0 7

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