[brian]

Nearly 1,000 nurses vote this week on a new contract with Kaiser Hawaii that holds 23 percent raises over three years.

Nurses settled Friday after Kaiser agreed to stronger language on staff levels. There is a national nursing shortage and it has led to nurses being assigned such extensive overtime, including double shifts, that some have burned out and left the profession, worsening the shortage.

"The employer basically accepted language submitted by the union," said Aggie Pigao Cadiz, head of the Hawaii Nurses Association. "Kaiser registered nurses statewide will be given the opportunity to ratify or reject the contract on Tuesday and Wednesday."

Full Story: Kaiser nurses vote on contract this week [Pacific Business News,HI]

[landshark]

I heard that the cna is trying to decertify kaiser in hawaii
does anyone know why?

when nurses are divided management always wins.....

[pickledpepperRN]

http://www.starbulletin.com/2005/12/...s/story01.html
Kaiser nurses seek to replace union

[Sheri257]

Originally Posted by landshark

I heard that the cna is trying to decertify kaiser in hawaii
does anyone know why?

when nurses are divided management always wins.....

My guess is statements like this from the other union:

"Aggie Pigao Cadiz, executive director of the Hawaii Nurses Association, said the California union has created unrealistic expectations of wage increases and staffing conditions. She suggested Hawaii nurses look at current contracts negotiated by the California group and ask how many times nurses had to strike to obtain the contracts before deciding to join with the California nurses group."

Well ... yeah ... you sometimes do have to strike. That's the only way management takes you seriously.

CNA is very aggressive, and people don't always agree with their tactics, but they deliver better results. The reason they got the ratio law passed was because they don't have to re-neogtiate staffing levels with every contract. The ratios are now permanently set by law and guaranteed in California. Maybe Hawaii RN's are looking for the same thing.

And as far as "unrealistic expectations of wage increases," I personally know of one instance where CNA got RN's a $20 an hour wage increase for top scale veteran RN's, without having to strike. This hospital's pay scale was abysmal and CNA was the reason they got a big raise. Of course, the fact that CNA did threaten to strike and management knew them meant it probably had something to do with it as well.

[RNadvocate]

Are there other nurses unions in Hawaii?

[MTBanRN]

Hooray for Hawaii. Step by step we will all get there.

[Hawaii RN]

Originally Posted by landshark

I heard that the cna is trying to decertify kaiser in hawaii
does anyone know why?

when nurses are divided management always wins.....

CNA has been in Hawaii for at least three years "attempting" to take over The Hawaii Nurses Association. They tell us they were answering an SOS call. In fact they recruited a hand full of nurses to file lawsuits w/ CNA attorneys and currently this decertification petition. Interestingly these renegade nurses were voted out of office in our last union election.

We don't expect CNA to stop spending their members dues money in Hawaii anytime soon.

Our actions speaks for us.

[pickledpepperRN]

Vote to pick union for nurses delayed

http://starbulletin.com/2006/01/31/b...s/story01.html