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Fall 2001 Answering the Call:
Union Nurses
Respond to 9-11 In New York, NYSNA nurses answered early calls for extra RN help, whether they were blocks away from Ground Zero at St. Vincents Hospital or NYSNA’s Wall Street office, or driving down from Latham, N.Y., where a scheduled meeting of the NYSNA Board of Directors and Delegate Assembly never took place. Further south in the District of Columbia, DCNA nurses at the Washington Hospital Center prepared to treat burn victims severely injured when terrorists crashed a plane into the Pentagon. In faraway states like Ohio, Minnesota and Washington, nurses called ANA or their state nurses association to ask, “I’m a nurse. How can I help?” Melissa Velazquez, an RN at the Washington Hospital Center’s Burn Intensive Care Unit, described watching the recovery of one of her patients, a Navy lieutenant who was badly burned in the Pentagon crash. “As a nurse, I have the honor of sharing these moments [of recovery] with the lieutenant and his family. These are the singular moments that make an RN’s heart sing. As long as these moments outweigh the decline of the working environment, I’ll keep coming back.” Velazquez testified on Sept. 25 before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce on the nursing shortage. NY RNs Strike for
Safe Staffing Despite negotiations which have been going on since April, nurses report that the hospital has been unwilling to accept previously established staffing guidelines and continues to rely on forced overtime to staff the hospital. Solving both issues, along with implementation of a fair and comprehensive health care plan, would go a long way in helping the hospital attract and retain qualified nurses. Nurses at the hospital have been working without a contract since May 13, 2001. Legislative Roundup …and Jeers to Oklahoma right-to-work supporters who passed an amendment making it illegal for unions and employers to negotiate contracts requiring payment of dues to a union as a condition of employment. Senate Republicans’ $100 billion economic stimulus package will do little to help the thousands of workers laid off after the 9-11 terrorist attacks, reports the AFL-CIO. The package earmarks 90 percent of its funds for unnecessary tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations. This Duck Doesn’t Quack… UAN President Cheryl Johnson had strong words concerning Eugene Scalia, nominee for the solicitor of the U.S. Department of Labor. Scalia has claimed that, “as medical science, ergonomics is quackery.” In a letter to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, Johnson opposed Scalia’s nomination: “RNs suffer musculoskeletal injuries at the workplace at a rate that exceeds truck drivers and construction workers…The views expressed by nominee Scalia defy the realities of registered nurses at the bedside.” Scalia’s nomination was approved by the committee, and awaits a full Senate vote. Putting Nurse Safety
FIRST Without a healthy nurse, patient care suffers. That’s the message UAN Director-at-large Linda Warino, RN brought to 500 cheering AFL-CIO union members at the Federation’s Oct. 28 national health and safety conference, “Safe Jobs and Strong Unions: Taking Action on Safety and Health.” Warino, the new president of the Ohio Nurses Association, described how nurses at the Youngstown General Duty Association battled to eliminate mandatory overtime during their contract negotiations and strike last summer. “We are committed to enforcing [our new] contract that we fought so long and hard for and continuing to fight to make mandatory overtime not only a contract violation but against the law,” said Warino. Poor Health & Safety = Fewer Nurses Some 87.9 percent of RNs surveyed in ANA’s September 2001 health & safety survey said health and safety concerns influence their decisions about the kind of nursing work they perform and their continued practice in the nursing profession. To read the full survey, go to http://www.NursingWorld.org/surveys/hssurvey.htm Dates UAN Executive Council Meeting, Dec. 3, 2001, Las Vegas, Nev. UAN Program Directors Meeting, AFL-CIO Biennial Convention, Safe Patient Handling and
Movement, Staff Nurse Summit, EDitorial Phone: 202.651.7000 © 2001 United American Nurses. UAN’s First
Labor Leader Institute The learning process was a two-way street for trainers and participants. “I hope every bargaining unit president
can attend this institute,” said one “Local unit leaders have a tremendous amount of helpful information to share with other nurses and we wanted to establish a forum for nurses to learn both from experts and each other,” said UAN Director Susan Bianchi-Sand. “Based on the enthusiastic response we received, the UAN Labor Leader Institute will become an annual event that is a mainstay of the UAN,” said Bianchi-Sand. National Veterans Negotiations Training Kicks Off Representatives of the UAN National Veterans Affairs Council’s executive council met in Washington, D.C. in September for training in the first-ever national contract negotiations for more than 5,000 VA nurses. The Federal Labor Relations Authority approved the consolidation of national VA contracts in late November. “We are hearing from VA nurses that they want action on issues like fair promotion for RNs who have earned it and deserve it,” said UAN Vice President Ann Converso, RN, who also serves as NVAC Council co-chair. “A new national contract will give us an excellent vehicle for bargaining and enforcing compliance on this and many other issues.” Winners New York Congratulations to NYSNA health care staff at Brooks Memorial Hospital, and nurses at Samaritan Medical Center, Staten Island University Hospital, who ratified new contracts this fall granting improvements in staffing and salary. Michigan MNA-represented RNs at McLaren Home Care, Sturgis Hospital, Mid-Michigan District Health Department and the Martha T. Berry Medical Care Facility all approved contracts this fall that will make it easier to attract and retain nurses in that state. Minnesota A district court judge upheld an arbitration ruling finding the state had violated contract language when it unilaterally discontinued safety escorts for female MNA nurses working at the Minnesota Correctional Facility. Around UAN • Ohio nurses elected UAN Director-at-Large Linda Warino, RN, president of the Ohio Nurses Association. • Some 1,500 Oregon Nurses Association RNs at the Oregon Health Sciences University facility voted to strike as early as Dec. 17th. • In Lansing, Michigan, 1,800 nurses at Sparrows Hospital reached a tentative ag reement on Nov. 30 after authorizing a strike. • Ohio nurses at Community Hospital in Springfield will vote on Dec. 20 on representation by ONA. Colorado RNs Say… “Clearly nurses in Colorado are putting a priority on improving staffing and salaries in not just our hospitals, but all work settings,” said Colorado Nurses Association Executive Director Linda Metzner on the release of a new UAN-CNA survey of Colorado nurses. What’s more, the survey indicates that nurses – especially younger RNs and those in hospitals – are interested in organizing, adds Metzner. Sign Up to Attend! Consider attending the Safe Patient Handling
and Movement meeting, Jan. 16-18, 2002, in Clearwater, Fla.
The conference will allow participants to discuss the technological
solutions to safe patient handling and design and an action
plan to build support for safety initiatives. For more information,
contact the University of South Florida College of Nursing
at 813-974-4296. © 2002 United American Nurses, AFL-CIO. All rights reserved |
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