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Spring 2002

Oregon, New York RNs Prevail

After nearly two months on the picket line, the 1,500 ONA nurses at the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland celebrated a hard-fought win Feb. 9. Nurses approved a new contract that includes wage increases of at least 20.5 percent over the three-year contract.

In New York, NYSNA RNs at St. Catherine of Siena Medical Center in Smithtown, Long Island, approved a new, three-year contract March 9, bringing to an end their 104-day strike. The new contract includes tough new provisions limiting management’s use of mandatory overtime – and provides strict disincentives against using mandatory overtime as a staffing mechanism.

“These courageous nurses took a stand for their profession and their patients,” said ONA labor negotiator and UAN Director-at-Large Kathleen Sheridan, RN. “The support Oregon RNs received from UAN nurses, leadership and member CMAs played a critical role in the successful conclusion of this strike.”

For full details on the NYSNA contract, go to www.nysna.org; for more information on the OHSU win, go to www.oregonrn.org.

Nurses will soon have an opportunity to make their voices heard to hospitals concerning new staffing standards from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO).

JCAHO announced recently that, beginning July 1, it will require hospitals to track four of 21 different indicators on staffing at their facilities as part of its accreditation inspection that happens every three years.

Hospitals will be required to show data on their chosen four indicators, as well as any mechanisms they’ve put in place to deal with problems uncovered in the data, or face a “recommendation” from JCAHO. This will be the first time in JCAHO’s half-century of existence that

the Commission will rate hospitals on any type of “staffing” indicators.

As your hospital gets ready for its next inspection, get involved in this evaluation process. Staff nurses have historically not been asked to be involved nor welcomed by management in JCAHO’s evaluation of hospitals. But these new standards and evaluation process represent a key opportunity to press hospitals to take nurses’ advice and improve patient care through better staffing.

In January, UAN President Cheryl Johnson, RN, and UAN Director Susan Bianchi-Sand met with JCAHO leaders at an AFL-CIO-led discussion to learn about this new

evaluation tool and impress upon them the valuable insight staff nurses can and should contribute to this process.

This National Nurses Week (May 6-12), ask your hospital administrator and supervisor some tough questions (you’ll find them on the inside poster) about JCAHO’s new staffing standards.

Use the poster inside this issue to let staff nurses in your unit know that it is long past time for RNs to press hospital management for answers on what they are doing to ensure safe staffing. All 21 indicators — from staff turnover to rate of post-op infections – can be seen on-line at:

www.jcaho.org/standard/

Call for UAN Nominations

UAN’s Nominating Committee invites all interested members represented for collective bargaining by a UAN CMA to nominate individuals for elective officer positions (two-year terms) for the 2002-2004 election cycle. Elections for the following UAN positions will be held June 27:

• President
• Vice-President
• Directors-at-large (2)
• Hearing panel members (3)
• Nominating committee members (3)

Deadline for nominations is April 30 to be included in the advertised list of 2002 candidates and the 2002 Candidate Profile Book. Individuals may also self-nominate up to June 26, or can be nominated from the floor of the National Labor Assembly. Nomination forms are available through CMA offices and E&GW Chairs. Contact Sheila McKie (smckie@ana.org) at UAN for more information on elections.

MANDATORY OT

New Jersey
In January, then-Acting Gov. Donald DiFrancesco signed into law a bill prohibiting the use of mandatory overtime except in strictly defined emergencies. There are now six states that have legislative limits on forced overtime.

WA & MN
Both states have passed mandatory overtime prohibition bills. Washington’s bill was signed by Gov. Locke March 22; Minnesota’s bill was signed by Gov. Ventura March 25.

New York
New York Newsday highlighted the prevalence of forced overtime in coverage of the St. Catherine’s strike. “It is at virtually every bargaining table,” UAN Director Susan Bianchi-Sand told the paper. “Mandatory overtime, unfortunately, is an epidemic across the health care industry.”

ORGANIZING

Washington
Congrats to the 70 nurses at St. Luke’s Rehabilitation Institute in Spokane, Wash., who voted for a voice on the job with WSNA in February.

New York
UAN Director-at-Large Ed Goldberg addresses NYSNA RNs at St. Catherine of Siena Medical Center in Smithtown, Long Island, who were on strike for 104 days. “This is wonderful news for the nurses in Long Island, and for nurses around the country,” said UAN Vice President Ann Converso, RN. “Every one of us knows what a problem the rampant abuse of mandatory overtime by hospital management has become.”

MEDIA SCAN

Check the March 2002 issue of Good Housekeeping (“Where are the nurses?”), which includes commentary from UAN President Cheryl Johnson, RN . . . The Feb. 25 issue of Modern Healthcare included a scathing ad by none other than U.S. Nursing Corp., which noted that during last summer’s Minnesota nurses strike, once scabs were hired, “to the rest of the world, it was business as usual and quality patient care was completely uninterrupted.” Tell Modern Healthcare what you think of scab nurses:

Modern Healthcare, Letters to the editor, 360 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60601

DATES
UAN Executive Council meeting: April 13-14, Orlando, FL.
Union Health Care Conference: April 14-16, Orlando, FL.
Staff Nurse Summit: April 25-27, Tampa, FL.
2002 NLA/ANA Convention: June 26-27/ June 27-30, Philadelphia, PA.
2002 Labor Leader Institute: Sept. 18-22, Chicago, IL.

VA NEWS

Veterans Affairs nurses celebrated the signing of P.L. 107-135, including VA Nurse Recruiting and Retention Act provision.

UAN won consolidation of UAN’s 20 VA registered nurse bargaining units in February, opening the door for national contract negotiations.

VA units are building their memberships and organizing non-represented VA nurses to achieve a strong, consolidated, national contract. Negotiating team members hope to begin bargaining this spring.

EDITORIAL
UAN Activist
600 Maryland Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20024

Phone: 202.651.7118
Fax: 202.651.7347
Web: www.UANnurse.org

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

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