National Nurses United

WRAP-UP REPORT ourselves. We look forward to making positive changes at Kindred Westminster." Like many subacute sites, which provide a step below full acute-care hospital services, conditions at many transitional facilities are substandard, often with short staffing and inadequate pay, benefits, and working conditions. The Kindred Westminster RNs voiced concerns about not enough RNs to provide appropriate care, including for ill patients on floors that provide general medical care, as well as high health coverage costs, and no pay increase in three years. Florida From top: RNs at Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles protest elimination of charge nurse positions; Orlando Health RNs expose employer union busting; Kindred Hospital RNs in Orange County unionize. California LOS ANGELES registered nurses at Good Samaritan Hospital held a candlelight vigil Nov. 25 to protest their employer's plans to cut critical hospital staff, specifically 52 charge nurse positions currently held by nurses who are among the most experienced and seasoned RNs at the facility. Hospital officials claim that the cuts are to meet "accountability requirements" under the Affordable Care Act though they have not been able to point to any specific provision of the law. RNs say management wants to replace the represented charge nurses with non-union department supervisors so that they can make more aggressive staffing cuts without interference. "The younger nurses look to us for 8 N AT I O N A L N U R S E guidance on patient advocacy—when and how to speak up," said postpartum charge nurse, Fran De Leon, RN, who has more than 16 years of service at the hospital. "Independent charge nurses are the canary in the coalmine for patient safety: If they eliminate us, we fear for the safety of our patients. This new supervisor position will not be able to advocate without fear of reprisal, and our patients will suffer."  WESTMINSTER registered nurses at Kindred Hospital in Westminster voted 97-23 on Dec. 4 to join the California Nurses Association. CNA will represent 150 RNs at the Orange County facility, a long-term care, rehab hospital which is part of a large, Kentucky-based chain that operates transitional care, nursing homes, rehab and hospice facilities, and other healthcare sites. "Our victory at Kindred was overwhelming," said Janet Williams, an RN who works there. "We know that being members of the California Nurses Association, we will finally have a voice to be able to advocate for our patients and W W W. N AT I O N A L N U R S E S U N I T E D . O R G on nov. 19, registered nurse with Orlando Health held a press conference to publicly protest their employer's anti-union campaign against their efforts to organize with National Nurses Organizing Committee-Florida. In early November, unfair labor practice charges were filed with the National Labor Relations Board against five of the eight Orlando Health hospitals for numerous and egregious violations of federal labor law. The nurses are seeking through unionization to improve staffing and patient care protections as well as better economic and workplace conditions for themselves. The charges include: interrogating employees about their support for NNOC, surveillance of nurses who are pro-union, prohibiting employees from talking about NNOC or sharing information about the union, removing NNOC flyers from areas where other public flyers are posted, threatening employees with reprisals to discourage their support for the union, unlawfully denying off-duty nurses access to their hospitals, and harassing and reassigning pro-NNOC employees. "Orlando Health feels it's more important to spend time keeping us from having a union rather than dedicating that same time to our patients," said Sarah Collins, an RN who works with critically ill infants at Winnie Palmer Hospital. "Even more upsetting is the amount of money that the hospital is paying to an anti-union consultant; those are patient care dollars being used to interfere with employee rights." The five hospitals include Dr. P. Phillips, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Orlando Regional Medical Center, South Seminole Hospital, and Winnie Palmer Hospital. —Staff report DECEMBER 2013

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