National Nurses United

NewsBriefs:Final 6/7/07 2:55 PM Page 8 NewsBriefs UC Nurses Back to Bargaining RN bargaining team members and staff representing the 10,000 RNs working at five UC medical centers and various healthcare facilities. he rn bargaining team representing some 10,000 CNA/NNOC members working at University of California facilities is back at it again. Priorities for 2007 UC bargaining are to protect UC pension, retiree health, and health insurance benefits; achieve higher salaries as well as additional salary steps for the experienced nurses; and strengthen staffing protections in the contract. The team also wants to ensure nurses' right to advocate for patients as union members despite the "Kentucky River" federal labor board decision; protect nurses' ability to make independent judgments for their patients even with implementation of new technology; ban mandatory rotating shifts in the UC system; and prevent a paid time off system (nurses must use vacation time for the first two or three days of an illness, thus forcing nurses to come to work sick). UC nurses are also trying to institutionalize the RN Response Network, a disaster relief group, at UC in the contract. "For many years nurses have chosen to work at UC because of the excellent pension and retiree health benefits, and good medical benefits," said Manny Punzalan, RN and chief nurse representative for UCLA-West- T 8 REGISTERED NURSE wood Medical Center. "If UC imposes pay cuts to fund the pension and significantly higher insurance premiums, they might as well forget about being able to recruit enough nurses to staff the facility. There's a nursing shortage nationwide. These proposed benefit takeaways would be a major stumbling block for the university to recruit and retain nurses." One of the bargaining team's challenges will be to prevent takeaways in pension benefits as UC attempts to shift pension costs to employees. Over the next four years UC wants a 5 percent pay cut for pension. The bargaining team also believes that the pension fund has not been properly managed as shown by the disappointing investment performance of the fund since previously inhouse pension management was outsourced to private consulting firms. The change of investment management cost millions, said Tam Nguyen, RN and chief nurse representative for UC Irvine Medical Center "Our contract reflects our passion for our profession", said Nguyen. "Patient care is the focus of our contract. Since in this country the healthcare industry focuses on the 'bottom line' to the detriment of safe patient care, it is nurses who are on the front line to W W W. C A L N U R S E S . O R G fight for our patients. With our UC contract, we want to continue to strengthen our ability to advocate for our patients." Issues like eliminating mandatory shift rotation and preventing a paid time off system are patient care issues. Mandatory shift rotation means nurses are less alert at work and thus more likely to make mistakes. This year's round of bargaining began in April, and although the contract expires June 30, negotiations will probably go well into the fall because UC won't have their proposed health insurance coverages and cost ready until October. The RN negotiating team plans to keep UC nurses informed and mobilized during this period to demonstrate the unity of UC nurses around these negotiation priorities. "We want to send a message to the university that 10,000 nurses are united and strong for the simple reason that nursing is a profession and not a business," said Punzalan. "We are here to provide safe patient care to the patients and their families and communities. The UC system is the secondlargest employer in the state of California. UC doesn't fully appreciate the determination of the UC nurses when it comes to safeguarding patient care." —bonnie ho M AY 2 0 0 7

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