Mass. Nurses Approve New Contract—and More Bargaining News
Nurses from the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA/NNU) ratified a new contract with two hospitals and more news from the “Bargaining Digest Weekly.” The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily, bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 1,400 subscribers. Union leaders can register for this service through our website, Bargaining@Work
SETTLEMENTS
MNA/NNU, Cape Cod Hospital Group: Members of the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA/NNU) at Cape Cod and Falmouth Hospitals ratified a new three-year contract, retroactive to Oct. 1, 2010. The contract includes staffing improvements, placing strict limits on the hospitals’ use of mandatory overtime and creating a staffing committee to review staffing levels for patient and nurse safety.
Nurses and Health Professionals /AFT, Milwaukee County: The Wisconsin Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals (WFNHP/AFT) won a one-year contract extension for Milwaukee County nurses, just before the state’s new anti-collective bargaining bill takes effect. AFSCME District Council 48, which represents 3,500 county workers, is hoping to similarly reach a new deal before Wednesday, when the state law goes into effect. Read the rest of this entry »
Steelworkers Ratify Pact with RG Steel—and More Bargaining News
The United Steelworkers (USW) at RG Steel ratified a new contract—and more news from the “Bargaining Digest Weekly.” The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily, bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 1,300 subscribers. Union leaders can register for this service through our website, Bargaining@Work.
SETTLEMENTS
USW, RG Steel: The United Steelworkers ratified a new agreement with North America successor RG Steel that covers some 6,000 workers at five facilities in Ohio, Maryland and West Virginia.
Michigan Nurses Avoid Strike, Reach Tentative Agreement with Sparrow Hospital
Registered nurses and health care professionals at Sparrow Hospital in Lansing, Mich., reached a tentative agreement yesterday with management on a new three-year contract, avoiding both a strike and lockout set for Monday morning.
The 2,100 employees, members of the Michigan Nurses Association/Professional Employees Council of Sparrow Hospital (MNA/PECSH), an affiliate of the National Nurses United (NNU), had voted to strike Nov. 22 if an agreement was not reached. The hospital management also threatened to lock out the nurses and other health care professionals if they did not accept management’s last offer.
Under the tentative agreement, the hospital will withdraw its lockout notice and the union will cancel the strike scheduled for Monday, Nov. 22. The new deal was hammered out in a series of meetings this week between Sparrow’s CEO and MNA Executive Director John Karebian.
L.A. Engineers Ratify New Contract—and More Bargaining News
Some 3,700 engineers and architects who work for the City of Los Angeles have a new contract—and more news from the “Bargaining Digest Weekly.” The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily, bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 1,300 subscribers. Union leaders can register for this service through our website, Bargaining@Work.
SETTLEMENTS
EAA-AFT, City of Los Angeles: Engineers and architects for the city of Los Angeles approved a contract covering 3,700 employees. Members of the Engineers and Architects Association-AFT (EAA-AFT) agreed to a one-year deal that has workers pay more toward health care in return for a reduced number of mandatory furlough hours.
MNA-NNU, St. Mary’s Medical Center: Nurses at St. Mary’s Medical Center in Duluth, Minn., ratified a three-year contract that addresses the nurses’ staffing concerns and raises wages. The deal covers nearly 1,000 members of the Minnesota Nurses Association-NNU (MNA-NNU).
Report: Ascension Hospitals Disrespect Nurses’ Rights
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Three Michigan hospitals affiliated with Ascension Health System consistently refuse to respect workers’ freedom to join a union and bargain collectively, according to a new report by Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ). The report shows the Catholic hospitals’ actions directly oppose long-standing Catholic social teachings. In fact, IWJ says, the anti-union behavior and worker disrespect demonstrated in the report represent “a fall from grace,” and so named the report: “Ascension Health: A Fall From Grace.”
In May 2010, a fact-finding delegation of 11 religious leaders, affiliated with IWJ, met with representatives of Ascension and visited employees of the hospitals—St. John Macomb-Oakland Hospitals in Warren and Madison Heights, Genesys Regional Medical Center in Grand Blanc and Borgess Medical Center in Kalamazoo. Some 700 registered nurses, members of the Michigan Nurses Association (MNA), an affiliate of National Nurses United (NNU), are involved in an ongoing struggle to gain a new collective bargaining agreement.
Minnesota Nurses Ratify New Contract
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After more than three months of tense negotiations that included a 24-hour strike, some 12,000 nurses in Minnesota’s Twin Cities yesterday voted to ratify a new three-year contract with 14 area hospitals. The new pact contains no concessions or give-backs and maintains the pension plan.
Although they did not win new safe staffing language they sought, the nurses maintained safe staffing language already in their contract, in which a nurse has a right to close a unit when it becomes unsafe to admit any more patients. The nurses are members of the Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA), an affiliate of National Nurses United (NNU).
Cindy Olson, an RN at St. John’s Hospital in Maplewood and a member of the MNA negotiating team, said:
It’s been a long three-plus months, but the nurses I’m talking to tonight have a healthy mixture of relief and resolve. Relief that we finally have a contract in front of us that we could ratify, and resolve to make sure we finish the job when it comes to attaining the safe staffing levels our patients and our profession deserve.
12,000 Minnesota Nurses Reach Tentative Agreement with Hospitals
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With the help of federal mediators, members of the Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) reached a tentative agreement yesterday with 14 Twin Cities hospitals. Last week the 12,000 nurses voted to strike if there was no agreement by July 6. Instead of walking out that day, the nurses will hold a ratification vote.
The nurses were able to beat back management’s demands to slash their pension fund by one-third, which would have moved it back to 1968 economic levels, and other concessions. But the issue of patient-staff ratios was not settled in the contract. Both sides agreed to continue working on the issue through the existing committee system at each hospital.
On their website, the nurses vowed to continue the fight for better staffing policies:
Just because we ultimately could not get the safe staffing language we wanted in this particular contract does not mean this was a failure or that it can’t happen in the near future. The staffing issue has been something MNA nurses have been fighting for since the early 1990s. Remember this is a long road and the past three to four months we made major progress on the unsafe staffing issue. If we stay united and fired up about staffing, we will get there!
The nurses waged a 24-hour strike June 10. Hospital administrators kept the facilities operating with replacement nurses hired through national agencies that specialize in providing staff during strikes. In California, a similar strike by some 13,000 California Nurses Association (CNA) nurses was blocked by a court order. Click here for more. Both MNA and CNA are affiliated with National Nurses United (NNU).
Delegates to New RN Super Union Set for Convention
A new National Nurses United union is holding its founding convention Dec. 7-8 in Phoenix. The new union is a joint effort by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC), the United American Nurses (UAN) and the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA).
The 150,000 RN super union was proposed earlier this year by the trio of nurses’ unions. The 23,000-member MNA approved the creation of the NNU in October. The 86,000-strong CNA/NNOC voted to join the super union in September.
Says UAN Secretary-Treasurer Jean Ross, RN:
It is long overdue for all staff nurses to join together nationally to tackle health care reform that works for everyone, safe nurse staffing levels and giving every unorganized nurse in this country who wants a union the chance to join one. None of these goals will be met without the cooperative work of staff nurses, and we can’t wait to get to work building on the good work UAN nurses have begun over the past decade.
Massachusetts Nurses Say ‘Yes’ to RN Super Union
Delegates to the Massachusetts Nurses Association’s (MNA‘s) annual convention yesterday voted overwhelmingly to become part of the largest registered nurses union in U.S. history—National Nurses United (NNU).
The new NNU unifies the 23,000-member MNA with the 86,000-strong California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC), which voted to join the super union in September. The 45,000-member United American Nurses (UAN) will hold a vote on whether to join later this month.
Ad: When Nurses Disappear, So Does Patient Safety
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The nation’s crisis in patient care stems from routine understaffing of registered nurses in hospitals—and that understaffing, say nurses unions, leads to thousands of unnecessary patient deaths a year.
In a move to raise public awareness and build support for national safe staffing level standards, the nation’s three major nurses unions have launched a new TV and online advertising campaign. The campaign coincides with the debut of “HawthoRNe,” one of the new TV shows debuting this season that features nurse characters.
The ad from the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC), United American Nurses (UAN) and Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA) asks viewers to imagine a world without nurses.
When nurses disappear, so does patient safety….If you’ve ever been a patient or will be one in the future, insist on safe staffing levels—because it’s our registered nurses who put the care in health care.
