Judge Rules CNA strike Illegal 7/20/05

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Specializes in Cardiac Critical Care, Trauma, Neuro..

Judge issues order to halt planned nurses strike

By Lisa Rapaport -- Bee Staff Writer

Published 11:28 am PDT Wednesday, July 20, 2005

A Sacramento Superior Court judge issued a temporary restraining order Wednesday to halt a nurses strike planned Thursday at the five University of California teaching hospitals statewide, including UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento.

UC officials praised the ruling as one that will protect patients and said they will immediately start spreading the word to nurses that they must now report to work Thursday. At UC Davis -- where the emergency room and several intensive care units were closed this week -- hospital officials said those patient services will not be restored at least until Thursday morning when they see how many nurses actually report for work.

The previous contract between UC and the California Nurses Association expired April 30. It was extended three times as talks continued. But earlier this month union leaders urged nurses to vote for a strike after the two sides failed to reach agreement on several key issues, including staffing levels, pensions and wages.

At issue in court was whether the union followed bargaining rules laid out in state law for public education employees. In court papers requesting an order to stop the strike, the Public Employment Relations Board said union leaders skipped several required steps in contract negotiations that must legally occur before a strike is permissible.

Under state public education labor law, when two sides can't iron out a contract agreement, one of the parties must ask the labor board to formally declare negotiations at an impasse. Then, a state labor mediator would be brought in to facilitate additional bargaining sessions. A neutral fact-finder can also investigate issues that have blocked a deal, such as the disagreement between UC and the union over whether to dictate rules for minimum nurse staffing levels in the contract.

Because those steps have not happened, the planned strike was illegal, the labor board determined after investigating at the request of UC officials.

Union leaders agree bargaining stalled, but say the strike was legal because it was planned in response to labor law violations by UC during negotiations. UC refused to negotiate on several issues considered deal breakers by the union, labor officials said.

Legal or not, the planned one-day strike has already had a big impact on patients at UC medical centers in Sacramento, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Irvine and San Diego.

UC Davis stopped taking critical pediatric transfer patients last Thursday to prepare for the strike, court papers show. Friday, the Sacramento teaching hospital started refusing to take complex patients so it could prepare to shut down the emergency room and intensive care units.

Those turned away so far at UC Davis include a patient scheduled for open-heart surgery, a patient in need of a implantable pump to keep blood moving through the heart, and a patient in need of an aneurysm repair, court records show.

In addition, UC Davis, the only evidentiary center for crime victims in the Sacramento region, planned not to accept crime victims during the strike. The hospital also cancelled elective surgeries and organ transplants.

UC Davis hospital executives did not hire replacement workers for the strike, a decision made to maintain strong relations with employees that also forced the Sacramento hospital to cut back patient services more than the other UC hospitals, which did hire replacements.

Still, UC San Francisco Medical Center stopped accepting new patients Friday, court records show. The hospital also stopped taking high-risk pregnancy patients, cancelled pediatric surgeries for the week of July 18, rescheduled dialysis patients, delayed bone marrow transplants, and cancelled elective pediatric cancer treatments.

UCLA Medical Center cancelled transplants, all neurosurgery and vascular surgery, and limited transfers from other hospitals, records show. UC San Diego stopped scheduling elective surgeries, halted cardiac diagnostic tests, cancelled elective Caesarian sections, and reduced mid-wife services for the poor, records show.

Just thought I would get the word out to all interested parties.

Sherwood

http://www.calnurse.org/?Action=Content&id=1008

Schwarzenegger Appointees Acted Against RNs Protest Rallies and Picketing Planned Thursday Across State

July 20, 2005

The California Nurses Association today criticized a decision by a Sacramento judge to postpone a one-day walkout tomorrow by University of California registered nurses ...quot; and called it the latest illustration of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's ongoing attack on RNs.

Superior Court Judge Loren McMaster this morning blocked the strike by 9,000 UC RNs, at the request of the Public Employees Relations Board, an agency dominated by Schwarzenegger appointees.

The judge, however, refused the request by PERB and the UC to declare the strike illegal, and restrained University officials from engaging in any further retaliatory actions against nurses, some of whom have been suspended and faced with other disciplinary threats. A hearing is scheduled for August 11 on the PERB/UC bid for an injunction.

In response to the court-ordered cancellation of the strike, CNA announced that the RNs will hold picket and hold rallies all the major UC medical centers from 7:30 to 9 a.m. and 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday at UCLA, UC San Francisco, UC Davis, UC San Diego, and UC Irvine, as well as the UC Berkeley Student Health Center.

http://www.calnurse.org/?Action=Content&id=1008

Schwarzenegger Appointees Acted Against RNs Protest Rallies and Picketing Planned Thursday Across State

July 20, 2005

The California Nurses Association today criticized a decision by a Sacramento judge to postpone a one-day walkout tomorrow by University of California registered nurses ...quot; and called it the latest illustration of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's ongoing attack on RNs.

Superior Court Judge Loren McMaster this morning blocked the strike by 9,000 UC RNs, at the request of the Public Employees Relations Board, an agency dominated by Schwarzenegger appointees.

The judge, however, refused the request by PERB and the UC to declare the strike illegal, and restrained University officials from engaging in any further retaliatory actions against nurses, some of whom have been suspended and faced with other disciplinary threats. A hearing is scheduled for August 11 on the PERB/UC bid for an injunction.

In response to the court-ordered cancellation of the strike, CNA announced that the RNs will hold picket and hold rallies all the major UC medical centers from 7:30 to 9 a.m. and 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday at UCLA, UC San Francisco, UC Davis, UC San Diego, and UC Irvine, as well as the UC Berkeley Student Health Center.

CNA can say what they want. The strike was illegal!!!!!!!!!!!

That law was written LONG before Schwarzenegger or his appointees.

It's interesting that they just can't admit that they missed it. The attorney was probably going by the NLRA instead of the PERA. There is a difference when dealing with public employees vs. private employees.

Why can't we as nurses get the bottom line, a facility can have all types of doctors, they can offer all types of services, but if there are NO NURSES then they can't do anything. Patients don't just come to the hospital for care from a doctor, NURSES have to do special things too.

I have 2 physicians in the family, friends have children who are physicians, they all say, if the nurses in this country would get together, stick together, and make realistic, educated, money wise decisions, then every facility in the land would have to agree. The bottom line is we need to band together as professionals and demand better wages, retirements, benefits of all kinds.

Specializes in Cardiac Critical Care, Trauma, Neuro..
Why can't we as nurses get the bottom line, a facility can have all types of doctors, they can offer all types of services, but if there are NO NURSES then they can't do anything. Patients don't just come to the hospital for care from a doctor, NURSES have to do special things too.

I have 2 physicians in the family, friends have children who are physicians, they all say, if the nurses in this country would get together, stick together, and make realistic, educated, money wise decisions, then every facility in the land would have to agree. The bottom line is we need to band together as professionals and demand better wages, retirements, benefits of all kinds.

I agree that what we need to do is organize NOT unionize. What we need to do is work together as professionals, present ourselves as the college educated professionals we are. We do not need to take to the street abondoning our patients, the very reason our profession exists, to make a point.

Nurses working together with professional allies. Promoting nursing, promoting healthcare and letting people know what we do and who we are.

We are not ranting angry protesters in the street. We do not walk off the job and leave our patients behind.

We are caring professionals dedicated to helping the sick and injured. We are educators, we are mentors, we are friends. We are ROLE MODELS. We are NURSES.

Wow, just looking at all the different types of patients who were turned away, that is scary.

We had a situation here recently (small rural town) where we needed to send a critical newborn out . . . all the local hospitals were full and we had to send to the Sacramento area . ... what if along with hospitals just being busy, there was also a strike?

The union needed to get their ducks in row to say the least.

steph

Specializes in Oncology/Haemetology/HIV.

The union needed to get their ducks in row to say the least.

Sounds to me more like the hospital system needs to get its ducks in a row.

(Opps, better not use the phrase...someone might get paranoid and think that it is threat.

I agree that what we need to do is organize NOT unionize. What we need to do is work together as professionals, present ourselves as the college educated professionals we are. We do not need to take to the street abondoning our patients, the very reason our profession exists, to make a point.

Nurses working together with professional allies. Promoting nursing, promoting healthcare and letting people know what we do and who we are.

We are not ranting angry protesters in the street. We do not walk off the job and leave our patients behind.

Actually ... 350,000 nurses have already walked off the job. That's the number of RN's nationwide who aren't working. Now you can say they've abandoned their patients and left them behind. Or, you can acknowledge the fact that many of those nurses don't think the pay, benefits and working conditions are worth returning to the profession.

As of 2000, the shortage was in full swing with 110,000 RN vacancies nationwide. Has the shortage helped non-union RN's do better on their own? No. Three years later, non-union RN's were making $7,000 less, on average, than union RN's. This isn't union propaganda. This is data from the Bush Labor Department, which isn't exactly pro-union.

Until pay and working conditions improve, the number of RN's who refuse to be treated badly by their employers will remain high. And they will continue to walk off the job, either individually or as a union. This difference is: with a union, RN's do negotiate better pay and working conditions than their non-union colleagues.

:coollook:

Sounds to me more like the hospital system needs to get its ducks in a row.

(Opps, better not use the phrase...someone might get paranoid and think that it is threat.

Only if they are a duck . . . . :chuckle

It is just an old saying for getting yourself organized, which you would think the union would do since organization is their purpose.

steph

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