Saint Mary's Reno RNs Choose CNA/NNOC In Landslide 64 Percent Vote for 500 RNs

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Saint Mary's Reno RNs Choose CNA/NNOC In Landslide 64 Percent Vote for 500 RNs

Fri Dec 7, 2007

Nevada Breakthrough for Fastest Growing Union RENO, Nev.--(Business Wire)--

Registered nurses at Saint Mary's Regional Medical Center in Reno Thursday night voted by over 64 percent to join the nation's fastest growing union, the California Nurses Association/ National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC)....

...Saint Mary's RNs now also join 10,000 of their colleagues at 25 other Catholic Healthcare West hospitals who are already members of CNA/NNOC and have experienced dramatic gains in patient care conditions and RN standards. "We are thrilled that we are going to be negotiating to improve quality of patient care at Saint Mary's," said Amy Barats, an Emergency Room RN. "Safe patient care is our number one concern and nurses now have the collective bargaining power to make changes necessary."...

...To achieve the victory, the nurses also had to overcome active interference by the Service Employees Intl. Union (SEIU) which intervened in the election with virtually no support, tried to delay the election with bogus charges, and then encouraged RNs to vote against representation. Finally SEIU pulled its name off the ballot....

http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS180717+07-Dec-2007+BW20071207

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In Solidarity....

Now its time for management to bargain in good faith for a fair contract...

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That is interesting about SEIU, just who is the SEIU representing anyway?As for the CNA/NNOC, wow, a powerful union, at long last.

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Specializes in Neurosciences.

Awesome! Nurses need union representation to have better working conditions.

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Specializes in Medical/Surgical/Maternal and Child.

WOOOOHOOOOO!!! Congratulations nurses at St. Mary's Regional Medical Center. I know that some of my long time friends and peers from nursing school work at St. Mary's and I'm so happy that you joined CNA...I worked there when the Dominican Sisters of San Rafael were a much welcomed presence there and St. Mary's has always had an excellent reputation. All my love and best wishes to you all!!! :balloons::balloons::balloons::):)

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Saint Mary's to unionize with CNA

Ray Hagar ([email protected] )

RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL

December 8, 2007

Some nurses at Saint Mary's Regional Health Center were overjoyed Friday after their colleagues voted overwhelming to unionize under the California Nurses Association late Thursday evening...

...Now, the number of patients they are asked to oversee is overwhelming, which leads to poor and sometime dangerous health care, some nurses said.

"We are very, very excited, and this is a great thing for Saint Mary's," nurse Tonya Benitez said. "We are hoping to get better staffing ratios because patient safety is our number one concern. We think things are going to start going great now."...

...Saint Mary's nurse Marylea Hall had worked for a Catholic Heathcare West hospital in Stockton, Calif., and was impressed with what the CNA did for nurses there.

"I am well aware of what CNA can do," Hall said. "We had staffing ratios that were implemented there."

Some patients are at risk at Saint Mary's, other nurses said.

"We started this (movement to unionize) back in August and it was over patient safety issues," nurse Amy Barats said. "I work in ER (emergency room) and we just felt that it was becoming very unsafe for the people who were coming in and seeking care.

"It is no big secret that there is a nursing shortage going on and we are feeling it even more right now," Barats said. "There is not adequate staffing and without (nurse-to-patient) ratios in place, you just get overwhelmed having so many patients.

"In an ER setting, you just never know what is going to come through the door and we just felt that we were not able to give the kind of care to our patents that we wanted to," Barats said. "So that is why we originally called CNA to see if we can get them involved."

Many hospitals, including Saint Mary's, are more concerned with the profit margin than patient care, nurses said.

http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071208/BIZ/712080333/1071

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Nurses take union to heart

RNs at Saint Mary's are hopeful a union will end the nurse exodus to California

"There's no reason for disparity of care," registered nurse Amy Barats said. "Our patients deserve the same care in Nevada as in California." Barats is direct, assertive and a self-described patient advocate. Like many nurses, she wants to help patients and contribute to her community.

Barats, a graduate student and single mother of an 8-year-old son, has worked in the emergency room at Saint Mary's Regional Medical Center for two years. Prior to that, she worked as an EMT while attaining her nursing degree. She's found that many of her fellow nursing graduates have moved to California for better wages and working conditions...

...Nurses at Saint Mary's hope to gain California nurse-to-patient staffing ratios, floating benefits, working equipment with newer technology, a pay scale to contract and better staffing. All of which will, hopefully, lead to higher RN retention at Saint Mary's and end the exodus of nurses to California. Barats noted that since CNA has been on the premises, staffing levels have increased.

"Everybody has put up with a lot, and it paid off in the end," Barats said, amid joyful screaming and crying co-workers when the election results were announced.

Victory in hand, Barats intends to take a break and savor the victory at Disneyland in Anaheim with her son and fiancé....

http://www.newsreview.com/reno/Content?oid=606288

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Patient, nurse ratios a focus in negotiations

Representatives of the California Nurses Association proposed specific nurse-to-patient ratios in the opening round of negotiations with managers of St. Mary's Regional Health Center, a union spokeswoman said Thursday.

At the opening session Wednesday, nurses sought the same nurse-to-patient ratios in California law, said Jill Furillo, division director for the CNA national nurses organizing committee.

Establishing the ratios are necessary if the hospital is to meet goals set by management, registered nurse Marylea Hall, a member of the union negotiating team, said.

"This is really important to St. Mary's," Hall said. "They want 100 percent patient satisfaction and the nurses believe that if we get the staffing ratios, we will be able to provide that."…

http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080201/BIZ/802010481/1071

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