National Nurses United

Diego Medical Center, settled down to a position with Kaiser Permanente in its special care nursery. At Kaiser in San Diego, Hawkins was a member of another union for almost 12 years. She says she took a class about serv- ing as a nurse representative and often acted as a resource per- son on her unit for questions about the contract, but her level of involvement stopped there because her former union didn't require or encourage the deep level of involvement that CNA does. "They were very nonpolitical," said Hawkins. "Everything was just about the contract and your own little world." In 1996, Hawkins and her husband Rick moved to Rick's home- town of Fresno, where they both got jobs with Kaiser. By this time, Rick, who had gotten laid off in 1992 after working for years in mid- dle management at a labor defense contractor, had finished a career transformation and also become a nurse. Hawkins says people always assume that she and Rick must talk about work and medical topics all the time, but she says they actually don't. "Especially with HIPAA and patient confidentiality, a lot of the time we do not talk about medical stuff," she said. "On the instances were we do, it's great because we completely understand where the other person is at, can synthesize, and even help them work through an issue. So that's awesome and in that way it brings us closer together." Before Hawkins moved, some friends had encouraged her to vol- unteer with CNA, which represent- ed Fresno Kaiser RNs, once she arrived. She did, though her first contact was, funny enough, a com- plaint letter. She was upset that the Fresno RNs had an addendum to the contract that specified a differ- ent pay rate and less vacation time. "I wrote them saying, How could you let this happen?" said Hawkins. "And someone called right back and said, If you're mad, we're going to be going into negotiations and you have to get involved in bargaining." She realized this was true, and quickly joined the seminal 1996- 1998 Kaiser negotiations. Those 18 months of bargaining gave Hawkins a crash course in CNA. Emboldened by concessions from some other employ- ees, Kaiser was demanding major takeaways from their Northern California RNs. After a series of difficult strikes, the nurses got nearly everything they wanted. Since then, Hawkins has continued to serve on her facility's bargaining team and also served more than three years as an RN Quality Liaison, one of the programs established through the '96- '98 contract that was intended to identify and correct systemic nursing issues. Now, besides organizing, she counts finding and grooming new nurse leaders as one of her talents. Last year, she volunteered at the Houston Astrodome clinics helping Hurricane Katrina evacuees. The year 2002 was a big turning point for Hawkins. She was elect- ed to the CNA board of directors and helped out in San Dimas on her first organizing campaign. At this point, she moved beyond bar- gaining and facility issues, and started learning about and shaping CNA's wider healthcare goals of establishing a single-payer health- care system that treats everyone with the same quality standards. "CNA is just so different," said Hawkins. "Most unions are just about negotiating and servicing the contract, and yes we do a great job of that, but the picture is bigger than that. Once I real- ized that, I was like, Wow." She suddenly got political. She start- ed reading the editorial sections of newspapers and felt an urge to go read more labor history. Hawkins said the big challenge is that there are so many nurs- es to reach. But she can't help but remain positive. "They have to realize first that they have a voice at the bedside," she said. "Then CNA will show them we have a voice for our state, coun- try, and perhaps even the world." ■ Lucia Hwang is editor of California Nurse. Profile Name: Leslie Anne Hawkins Facility: Kaiser Permanente Fresno Unit: Special care nursery Nursing for: 25 years On CNA board since: 2002 Sign: Pisces Pet nursing peeve: When people are flaky and don't show up when they say they will. Favorite work snack: Anything chocolate Latest work accomplishment: In her Quality Liaison role, just finished helping a committee at Kaiser Manteca establish a workload measurement tool Color of her favorite scrubs: Anything ocean themed, printed with fish, dolphins, or coral Favorite hobbies: Scuba diving, reading, vacationing, and being with people Favorite recent movie: Into the Blue, about a group of divers who find some sunken treasure that belongs to a drug lord Currently reading: Don't Think of an Elephant, for the second time and Labor's Untold Story Secret talent unrelated to nursing: Making old-fashioned soap with real lye "CNA is just so different. Most unions are just about negotiating and servicing the contract, and yes we do a great job of that, but the picture is bigger than that. Once I realized that, I was like, Wow." C A L I F O R N I A N U R S E W W W . C A L N U R S E S . O R G M A R C H 2 0 0 6 21

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