National Nurses United

NewsBriefsJuly 2006 7/25/06 7:46 PM Page 4 NewsBriefs Cook County Nurses Win a Historic In the face of deep concessions, nurses establish a landmark first contract. O 4 REGISTERED NURSE lapsed as a result. After their contract expired in November 2004, County nurses sought out new representation from the CNA/NNOC. In May 2005 nurses voted by a two-to-one margin to replace INA with CNA/NNOC. In quick succession, nurse leaders were elected, training and research programs were instituted, a facility bargaining council and negotiating team were chosen, and formal negotiations began in August 2005. The CNA/NNOC negotiating team entered difficult terrain for its first contract. Like the nurses, all the other union contracts in the county had long expired and bargaining had been dragging out for more than two years. At a time of a worsening county budget and facing Republican-led cutbacks in funding, the other unions were facing deep concessions, especially in healthcare costs. The negotiating team also had to overcome INA's legacy of negotiating with minimal nurse involvement. Most significantly, the INA had engaged in years of concessionary bargaining and signing "me-too" agree- ILLINOIS W W W. C A L N U R S E S . O R G J U LY 2 0 0 6 ABOVE LEFT AND OPPOSITE: LOREN SANTOW n june 28, RNs in the hospitals and clinics of Cook County, Ill. accomplished what they determined to do two years ago by voting by 88 percent to ratify their first contract with the National Nurses Organizing Committee and California Nurses Association. The new contract reverses years of concessions, restores the role of nurses as leaders and patient advocates within Cook County Bureau of Health Services, and lays the foundation for future gains in nursing practice, patient advocacy, and compensation. "County nurses have finally gained respect through this hard-won contract fight," said Barbara Brown-Frazier, RN and nurse negotiator. "We will be able to deliver better patient care because of what we achieved here." Over the last decade, Cook County nurses had become increasingly frustrated by weak representation by the Illinois Nurse Association (INA). Nurses faced declining patient care, a lack of respect for nurses and nursing practice, and wages trailing further and further behind Chicago-area hospitals. Nurse recruitment and retention had all but col- ments following settlements by the county's non-nurse unions. This round of CNA/NNOC bargaining restored county nurses to their proper role as leaders in their public health system. The nurse-led bargaining team spent hours researching the issues, educating themselves and their colleagues, hammering out a set of demands that would improve conditions for all nurses, meeting with county commissioners, and bargaining at the table. When they ran up against county administration's reluctance to break the mold of "business as usual," nurses held informational pickets, voted overwhelmingly to authorize major economic actions, including a strike, and ultimately had to issue a strike deadline. These actions received major media coverage. When the county's longtime president John Stroger, Jr. suffered a major stroke in March, a power vacuum developed and the nurses' negotiations electrified the Chicago community. This new level of nurse activism and leadership reversed the established bargaining dynamic at Cook County. Pressure from the nurses accelerated the bargaining timetable for all the county's unions. The threat of a nurses strike forced management to retreat from their most concessionary demands and elevated the terms and conditions for all county employees. Most importantly, nurses were able to assume the mantle of pace-setters and leaders among the county's unions. After ten months of difficult contract talks, and with a strike looming, the bargaining team succeeded in reaching a tentative agreement in the early morning hours of June 23. Emerging tired but euphoric after some 15 hours of bargaining, Diane Ellis, RN at Stroger Hospital said, "We have set a new standard for RNs in Illinois." Less than a week later, nurses ratified the contract. The four-year agreement reverses the concessionary legacy of the INA and lays a foundation for future advances in patient advocacy, nurse practice, and nurse compensation. It also creates a firm foothold for

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