National Nurses United

National Nurse magazine May-June 2016

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CALIFORNIA S uccessfully concluding a lengthy dispute, registered nurses at one of the nation's largest Catholic hospital chains, Providence St. Joseph Health (PSJH), in August won historic first contracts at Queen of the Valley Medical Center in Napa and Redwood Memorial Hospital in Fortuna, as well as new agree- ments for St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka and St. Mary Medical Center in Apple Valley. The California Nurses Association repre- sents nearly 4,000 PSJH RNs. The agreements include significant patient care and economic improvements and new workplace protections, represent- ing a sharp break from a concessionary spiral that has been prevalent at other non- union, non-CNA Providence St. Joseph hospitals. "RNs across the state have been working together to win these contracts for years. They put a plan in place and made it happen," said CNA Co-President Deborah Burger, RN. "These agreements set a model for all St. Joseph RNs of higher standards for safe staffing, wages, and benefits that can be won with a collective voice through CNA." The victory is especially significant for Queen of the Valley Medical Center RNs who voted to join CNA in 2013 and have carried out a long campaign to secure their first contract to win improvements for patients and their colleagues at the Napa hospital. "After nearly three years of fighting for our first contract, Queen nurses are looking forward to voting to approve a tentative agreement we can be proud of," said Mary- lou Bahn, RN. "We won so much: protec- tions for patients and safe staffing, and wages and benefits that we believe will final- ly put a stop to the exodus of nurses from Queen. It was a long, hard struggle, but Queen nurses stuck together and now we can be very proud of what we accomplished." Key features in the tentative pacts include staffing improvements to promote patient safety, economic improvements to promote retention of experienced RNs and recruit new nurses, and critical healthcare protections, including a new RN supplement package for nurses injured in workplace violence or by needle stick accidents. The nurses who won first contracts will now also have a greater voice in patient care through establishment of their professional practice committees. Queen of the Valley nurses will gain an aver- age 25 percent wage increase over the life of the contract. "I've been on the bargaining team for every one of our contracts since we joined CNA in 2002, and I believe this is the best contract we've won yet," said Susan Johnson, RN, of St. Joseph Hospital Eureka. "We improved our staffing and floating language to make our hospital safer for patients and nurses, we improved wages and benefits significantly to recruit and retain nurses, and we worked with our sisters at PSJH hospitals across the state to become stronger united. Clearly, nurses' efforts for safer staffing are not over, but this contract gives us a great step forward." Nurses repeatedly noted the solidarity of St. Joseph RNs across the state as a key factor in their successful negotiations. "Redwood nurses voted to join CNA just last August, and here we are a year later with a great first contract," said Redwood Memori- al RN Linda Gelphman. "This contract does so much to ensure safe patient care, safe staffing, and protections for nurses. This victory could not have happened without the united efforts of Providence St. Joseph nurs- es across the state." —Staff report M AY | J U N E 2 0 1 6 W W W . N A T I O N A L N U R S E S U N I T E D . O R G N A T I O N A L N U R S E 9 RNs at four St. Joseph hospitals win new contracts Two are historic first agreements

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