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Fall 2002 Arming RNs to Organize This fall and winter, organizing trainings are being held to give staff nurses and CMA staff the tools they need to tell non-union nurses the story of how representation by CMAs and the UAN can help them. October’s GO TEAM training brought together 22 staff nurses from nine states to gain some practice in talking to their fellow nurses about union membership with UAN. A second, separate organizer training for CMA staff organizers was also held in October. “UAN member advocates needed to be able to get an up-close and personal picture of the UAN, and the GO TEAM training provided that,” said Linda Warino, RN, president of the Ohio Nurses Association and a participant in the training. “I and other members of the UAN Executive Council strongly believe that our staff nurses are the best advertisement for our union and play a critical role in increasing membership across the country,” said UAN President Cheryl Johnson, RN. A training for Midwestern UAN nurses and staff
will be held jointly with the AFT/Healthcare union Dec. 10-12
in Chicago. For more information, contact UAN Director of
Organizing John Schmid at jschmid@ana.org.
Contracts The 7,000 NYSNA RNs at New York City’s Health and Hospitals Corporation and mayoral agencies ratified a contract Oct. 22 specifying in writing the role that the union must play in deciding procedures for implementing merit pay increases. Nurses demanded that the union’s role in determining merit pay procedures be affirmed by the city in writing, and the NYC Office of Collective Bargaining agreed last summer. But city officials dragged their feet over codifying this important point, seriously delaying negotiations. Nurses also will receive a wage increase of 8.4 percent over the 27-month contract, which runs from Oct. 1, 2000 to Dec. 31, 2002, with negotiations for a successor agreement early next year. The 400-plus members of the DCNA bargaining unit at Howard University Hospital won an 11 percent pay raise and restrictions on the use of unlicensed personnel in a three-year contract ratified Sept. 24. The increase includes a retroactive raise issued to those members who didn’t receive the illegal, unilateral raise that management previously gave some nurses. The contract also includes restrictions on the use of unlicensed personnel. MONA-represented nurses at Encompass Medical Group in Kansas City, Mo., approved a three-year agreement in September granting raises of 9 percent over the term and enhanced severance and CE benefits. An unscheduled wage increase for MNA nurses
at the Martha T. Berry Medical Care Facility in Michigan will
raise pay by 6.5 percent as of Oct. 22, rather than waiting
for the scheduled increase in January 2003. The facility was
having trouble attracting RNs, despite a 25.5 percent wage
increase over the five-year contract, which will expire in
2005. UAN/ANA Agree Negotiations to establish the UAN as the exclusive,
autonomous and independent union of the ANA reached a successful
conclusion Nov. 10. Union Building: CO & UT UAN's newest bargaining unit at the VA Medical Center in Denver is preparing to hold leadership elections in November and will be incorporated into the national VA contract currently under negotiation. Nurses at the Salt Lake Regional Medical Center
are forging ahead to determine first contract issues and union
leadership, despite the NLRB's impounding of UAN ballots since
June. In an effort to limit legal, democratic union representation,
the hospital appealed the election to the NLRB -- a growing
problem under the Bush administration since the Kentucky River
Supreme Court ruling. Rally in the Bronx Nurses from the Montefiore Medical Center took
to the streets of the Bronx Oct. 22 to tell management that
enough time has passed without nurses’ contract concerns
being addressed. The 1,800 NYSNA RNs have been without a contract
since Jan. 15. “This is all taking place in the face
of a burgeoning nursing shortage and an aging population,
which will require even greater numbers of skilled nurses
in the very near future. We need contract language that gives
us legal recourse in order to protect the public,” said
bargaining unit Chair Judy Sheridan-Gonzalez, RN, pictured. MEDIA SCAN A report published in JAMA (available online
at http://jama.amaassn.
org/issues/v288n16/rfull/joc20547.html ) finds that having
fewer nurses in hospitals threatens patient health. The study,
conducted by Linda Aiken, PhD, RN, et al., was covered by
the Washington Post, New York Times, the Associated Press
and USA Today, among others. “If the medical establishment
can't find some way to make the [nursing] profession more
attractive, the exodus may turn into a stampede,” notes
the Times in an Oct. 25 editorial. Saluting UAN RNs MONA E & GW Chair Artis Porter, RN received the Lifelong Achievement Award from MONA’s Third District for her work to improve working. In Michigan, four staff nurse local leaders
were honored with E & GW Achievement Awards, including
Diane Goddeeris, RN; Kim Ford, RN; John Armelagos, RN; and,
Jonelle Peppin, RN. Training Tomorrow’s Labor Leaders 105 UAN nurses from across the country spent five days in September honing their union building skills at the second annual UAN Labor Leader Institute in true-to-life negotiations simulations, media training, VA labor law and other courses. “We want to provide a forum for staff nurses to learn from each other and the experts how to make their union stronger,” said UAN Director Susan Bianchi-Sand. “Training our next generation of staff
nurse leaders is the most effective and productive way to
ensure the future growth of the UAN.” Maria Gurreri, RN, of Missoula, Mont., said she plans to take what she learned into the next round of negotiations with her hospital: “I am really excited to be a young nurse at such an opportune and critical time for nurses. I’m so much more confident about the power nurses have now.” Kalamazoo, Michigan nurse Pat Meave, RN, added that the impact “of this training will be seen nationwide as the participants who attended reach their workplaces.”
VA NEWS DATES EDITORIAL © 2002 United American Nurses, |
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