Ca. Nurse Assn. has a new affilate...
Register Today!- by laborer Jan 3National Union of HealthcareWorkers, 10,000 strong
http://nurses.bluestatedigital.com/state/california
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Jan 4 by herring_RNFriday, January 04, 2013
CNA, NUHW Merge, Seek Better Workplace Standards, Benefits
On Thursday, the California Nurses Association announced that it has formally joined with the National Union of Healthcare Workers to form the NUHW-CNA, the Wall Street Journal reports (Maher, Wall Street Journal, 1/3). ...
... CNA and NUHW said the affiliation will help them seek better workplace standards to improve patient care and prevent hospital chains from reducing employee benefits (Wall Street Journal, 1/3).
In a statement, Deborah Burger -- CNA co-president -- said the unions "intend to send an unmistakable message to a callous hospital industry that nurses will not stand silent in the face of a ruthless drive by hospital employers or their collaborators to uproot decades of progress" (San Francisco Business Times, 1/3).
Sal Rosselli -- president of NUHW -- said that the affiliation "increases our power and experience exponentially" (AP/Sacramento Bee, 1/4).
Implications for SEIU
According to the Journal, the affiliation intensifies a rivalry between the unions and the 2 million-member Service Employees International Union.
NUHW-CNA is expected to campaign against SEIU for the membership of 43,000 workers at Kaiser Permanente (Wall Street Journal, 1/3).
Rosselli said, "We will now have the resources to compete with the SEIU's millions and millions of dollars." ...
Read more: http://www.californiahealthline.org/...#ixzz2H24rHGIP
laborer likes this. -
Jan 5 by OCNRN63Personally, I'm a little disappointed that CNA will no longer be a union for nurses. An environmental service technician is not going to understand the critical issues bedside nurses face. Are dietary staff going to want to strike because nursing has decided to strike regarding a patient safety matter? I'm not saying this to be elitist; I just think adding non-nursing staff runs the potential of diluting the message.
Maybe I misread the homepage of the NUHW, but it sounds like it includes a lot of staff who are not nurses.tewdles and herring_RN like this. - GuideJan 5 by herring_RNSince 2001 CNA has had an affiliate union CHEU for caregivers and healthcare employees at hospitals where the RNs are represented by CNA. -- CHEU: Caregiver and Healthcare Employees Union | National Nurses United \
At a hospital where I have many friends it is informally called the "Caregivers Union". Leaders of both unions work together for improvements in patient care.
Sometimes at hospitals where the non RNs are represented by SEIU RNs have worked to keep their LVNs, nursing assistants, and clerks.
Often, but not always the RNs have been successful in preventing layoffs of needed caregivers. Their union just accepted the layoffs without a fight. At one the hospital only left one nursing assistant on each unit, no matter how many patients there were. If a sitter was needed there was no one to help bathe, reposition, or get patients out of bed. Evantually even management realized patient satisfaction and care suffered with too few nursing personnel. They had to hire nursing assistants.
This agreement may help keep patient care standards up.
... an affiliation agreement posted online says the Jan. 1 agreement doesn’t give NUHW any rights to CNA’s funds or the right to participate in the nurses’ union’s elections or conferences, or vice versa. Both unions retain “their own autonomy with respect to their elections, conventions and wage negotiations.” ...
... As of the effective date, the online affiliation agreement stated, “NUHW will become an autonomous affiliate” of the CNA/National Nurses Organizing Committee.
How autonomous? The agreement says NUHW retains control of its funds, assets and properties, as well as the right to direct, hire and fire NUHW staff,” produce its own publications, web sites and other forms of communications, and generally act much as it has since its leaders were expelled from SEIU’s United Healthcare Workers West local in early 2009. ...
CNA and NUHW to 'formally affiliate' but not merge or share assets - San Francisco Business Times - herring_RN likes this.
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Jan 6 by NCalLVNThey will not share assets? CNA loaned 2 million dollars to NUHW. These two unions have been affiliated for much longer than most are aware of. - GuideJan 6 by herring_RNHealthcare Unions in California Join Forces
by Mina Kim | January 4, 2013
Officials with the California Nurses Association and National Union of Healthcare Workers announced their affiliation Thursday, to seek better workplace conditions for healthcare employees.
CNA co-president Deborah Burger said nurses' abilities to negotiate contracts has been undercut by the Service Employees International Union,and its chummy relationship with employers like Kaiser Permanente.
“SEIU California is sort of the concession factory,” Burger said. “And we know that once you give up a benefit it doesn't come back.”
SEIU-United Healthcare Workers spokesman Steve Trossman denied the charge. ...
http://www.kqed.org/news/story/2013/...ia_join_forces - GuideJan 6 by herring_RNUnions join forces to fight nursing cutbacks
Two feisty labor unions are joining forces to fight efforts to roll back California’s strict nurse-to-patient ratio law and erode contract protections they’ve won at Kaiser Permanente and Sutter Health.
The National Union of Healthcare Workers, formed four years ago when Service Employees International Union took control of California local United Healthcare Workers West, has affiliated with the California Nurses Association.
The affiliation unites 10,000 health-care workers at NUHW with 85,000 registered nurses at CNA, both currently at loggerheads with Kaiser, Sutter, SEIU and the California Hospital Association. It’s a strategic alliance, not a merger.
The two unions will retain separate constitutions and structures under the agreement; NUHW will be an autonomous affiliate of CNA. ...
The focus of the affiliation is a united front.
“It’s all about making sure we collectively — nurses and other health-care workers — have the ability to provide the care we need to protect patients,” said Cathy Kennedy, an intensive-care nurse at Kaiser’s Roseville hospital.
Most recently, the two unions jointly picketed 21 Kaiser hospitals on Dec. 18 — including all three in the Sacramento region — to protest what they say is inadequate nurse staffing and delays in patient care. ...
... Both unions are itching to go head-to-head with SEIU president Dave Regan, who has joined forces with the California Hospital Association ...
...
Regan made an unprecedented move last year to get support for legislation to temporarily relax nurse-to-patient ratios at California hospitals during meal times and rest breaks. It didn’t go anywhere. He asked the California Labor Federation to go neutral on a bill if one was proposed — and was turned down.
Adamantly opposed by California hospitals as reducing their ability to staff to meet actual patient need instead of achieving boilerplate numbers, the ratio law was the product of 10 years of intense lobbying by the nurses’ union — and they were furious at efforts to skirt it.
SEIU spokesman Steve Trossman called the affiliation “a lot of hoopla over not much substance.” ...
http://www.bizjournals.com/sacrament....html?page=alllindarn likes this. -
Jan 13 by tewdlesI think we all have to be prepared to be VERY politically active when Health Care Administrators begin to REACT to ACA changes by cutting back on the care delivery team members.
We can do this, unionized or not. There are issues that transcend politics.
