National Nurses United

NewsBriefs. Oct 2006 10/11/06 10:42 AM Page 11 Fremont-Rideout RNs Vote to Join CNA/NNOC ore than 500 registered nurses with Fremont-Rideout Health Group voted in September 247-140 to join CNA/NNOC, securing a stronger influence on working conditions and patient care issues at the predominant healthcare center serving the Northern California communities of Yuba City and Marysville. The election covers RNs at Fremont Medical Center, Rideout Memorial Hospital, Feather River Surgical Center, and FremontRideout Cancer Center. "For years we had tried communication with administration, trying to get somewhere but we never really did," said Tami Clark, RN. "They'd listen, but we'd never have any results. We wanted more of a voice in our hospital." The election capped a hard-fought organizing campaign that began last summer. The hospital group was opposed to unionization and worked against pro-union nurses, such as distributing anti-union flyers in break rooms. Nurses, however, built connections M across many different departments in support of CNA/NNOC. Also, in an unusual but perhaps increasingly common move given a national labor board decision that potentially strips all RNs of their union rights by classifying them as "supervisors," more than half of the charge nurses stepped down from their charge positions to guarantee their right to vote. "It was a group decision," said Paula Oakes, a charge nurse. Nurses also delivered a petition to the hospital signed by 350 RNs and staged several protests to ensure everybody would be represented. "We worked so hard to get to the point of election that there was no way we were not going to be included in the vote," said Clark, also a charge RN. Like Clark, many of the RNs said they supported the union not just for better benefits and staffing, but more importantly, a voice in their profession and in advocating for patients. For example, nurses have been concerned that patients are not receiving the level of CALIFORNIA OCTOBER 2006 W W W. C A L N U R S E S . O R G care, especially pain control, they should. "Patients were angry about it and nurses were angry about it because there was nothing they could do," said Jeannie Southard, a pre-op RN who has worked 22 years at Fremont hospital. Such criticisms, RNs say, stem from staffing problems, whether from understaffing or the rapid turnover rate. When seasoned RNs leave, the patients not only lose their expertise, but incoming nurses don't benefit from their mentorship. Without a union, nurses were frustrated because they had little influence on changing practices or working conditions that could recruit and retain experience nurses. Nurses had also come to distrust management's decisions about medical center operations. For example, Fremont nurses said they were not informed when cardiology and other services were closed down or moved to Rideout. Other times, benefits have been cut. "There's no go-between administration and the staff nurses and they don't seem to listen when we tell them. That's why we feel pitted against them," said Southard, who says she has tried to advocate for patients to wear armbands to prevent blood pressures from being taken on the wrong arm. Her program, though praised, was never implemented. Now unionized, nurses can pressure hospital management to deal with them as equals on patient care and work issues. After the successful election, the nurses report that everyone is hopeful about improving working conditions and the standard of care. Even retired nurses have come forward to thank Fremont-Rideout RNs for unionizing the medical center. Like them, they did not want to leave a poor healthcare legacy for the community. The nurses will next elect a bargaining team and start negotiations on their first contract. "There is now the ability for people to stand up and feel like when they want to advocate for patients, they can feel free to do that without something coming back on [them]," said Clark. "It's having somewhere to go with our problems and seeing something done to fix them." —bonnie ho REGISTERED NURSE 11

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