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Winter 2001

Stronger Together

Members of the Maine Nurses Association and Massachusetts Nurses Association chose unity over disaffiliation in recent voting. “Each of these state associations is a real force for change in health care and in our union,” said UAN Chair Cheryl Johnson after the decisions. “Their votes for unity strengthen our union and RNs everywhere.”

Bylaws Changes Proposed

More recognition of UAN as the union for nurses is the goal of proposed bylaws changes to be voted on by the ANA House of Delegates in June. Recognition and
policy-setting roles for UAN elected leaders and management authority for the UAN’s Director are among the changes proposed.

UAN Safe Staffing Campaign

Sign On, Speak Out, Spread the Word

UAN’s national campaign to put the staffing crisis in the spotlight is underway. Campaign materials to be sent to CMAs for statewide distribution include:

• Staffing Crisis Petitions to be signed by RNs, then used in lobbying for state and federal staffing legislation

• A fact card for nurses on staffing issues

• A campaign poster for staff bulletin boards (see poster in this issue)

CMAs are key to the success of the Safe Staffing Visibility Campaign — from getting hundreds of petitions signed by thousands of nurses to coordinating local and statewide events that generate media coverage and public support. The campaign will also provide bargaining support as contracts for many thousands of staff nurses are negotiated this year.

CMAs will soon receive local activity planning kits and order forms for supporting materials from UAN. Materials include a Guide to Safe Staffing and a brochure with tips to help consumers rate staffing practices at their hospitals, a public message poster, buttons, banners and signs. Media kits with sample op eds and talking points will be sent to CMAs in March.

Safe Staffing events come to a head May 6-12 — Health Care Crisis Action Week — with a Capitol Hill rally and lobby day in Washington, DC, on June 26, following the UAN National Labor Assembly and just before ANA’s House of Delegates. Don't miss it!

What Time Is It? “Time to Start Hearing Nurses!”

More than 700 Minnesota nurses rallied in the late-November cold in St. Paul to serve notice that their voices will be heard in making the public aware of the crisis in health care. Speakers including NOW co-founder Betty Friedan and U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone urged the nurses on. Minnesota Nurses Association President Kathleen Olson, RN, described the rally as “a momentous occasion that has inspired momentum.” Contracts for 10,000 Minnesota nurses are up for bargaining from February through June.

Dates

May 6-12 Health Care Staffing Crisis Action Week
Jun 26 UAN Safe Staffing

Lobby Day, DC
Jun 27-28 UAN National Labor

Assembly, DC
Jun 29-Jul 1 ANA House of Delegates, DC

Oct 4-7 Coalition of Labor
Union Women, Las Vegas

Editorial

UAN Activist
600 Maryland Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20024

Phone: 202.651.7000
Fax: 202.479.2079
Web: www.UANnurse.org

© 2001 United American Nurses.
All rights reserved.

Quoted
“Stop this before it starts,” says the teaser on the cover of the November 2000 issue of H&HN Magazine over a shot of striking nurses. The article inside offers puzzled management some useful if not new insight about nurses. “Nurses are working in a very hostile environment,” says UAN Director Susan Bianchi-Sand in the article. “They feel respected by the public, but not by their employers.”

Discovering the Nursing Shortage

First the Washington Post on Dec. 19, next the New York Times on Dec. 25, then the CBS Evening News in a Dec. 28 Eye On America segment and CNN on January 1, 2001— all reporting what RNs have been struggling with far too long: the critical staff nursing shortage. While highlighting some dimensions of the problem, not much light was shed on the causes and solutions — but that's what UAN’s Safe Staffing Visibility Campaign will do in the months ahead.

Winners

NY and Michigan

NYSNA nurses at Long Island College Hospital (LICH) in Brooklyn and New York Dialysis Management in the Bronx won new three-year contracts with wage increases and provisions to help resolve short-staffing problems. And at Buffalo’s Erie County Medical Center, Health Department and County Home, the 927 RNs represented by NYSNA won an arbitration settlement ending short-staffing, restrictions on temp nurses and wage increases. The arbiter wrote:

“Schedules should not be posted that…

UAN Contract Infobase: Supporting Nurses at the Bargaining Table

Using RN contracts gathered from across the country, UAN has built a powerful new bargaining resource available to negotiators and bargaining teams anywhere, anytime.

Via the Internet, negotiators can search the UAN’s Contract Infobase for specific contract provisions on any topic, and by other factors such as type of institution and number of RNs represented. To ensure security, Infobase access requires passwords.

“Even at three o'clock in the morning an organizer in a hotel room with a laptop can get new contract language to take the table,” says UAN Director Susan Bianchi-Sand. “That gives UAN nurses a big bargaining edge.”

create the need for unscheduled mandatory overtime. If that means that occasionally there is an extra nurse or nurses on a given shift, I am confident that the management team can find suitable work for him, her, or them.”

In Michigan, Iron County Community Hospitals RNs voted overwhelmingly for MNA representation, as did RNs at Sturgis Hospital, who voted to replace SEIU representation with MNA. And in Flint, MNA served notice on McLaren Hospital that MNA RNs support striking AFSCME Council 875 RNs’ fight to end mandatory overtime.

© 2002 United American Nurses, AFL-CIO. All rights reserved.