With Kaiser contract negotiations fast approaching, what can you do to prepare?
First, if you haven’t already, take the local bargaining survey online right now!
We interviewed members to ask what they think, and will be posting their video comments on this page over the next few weeks.
On December 10, 2011, UNAC/UHCP participated in the first of two LA candidate forums sponsored by AFSCME. The forums allow us to ask candidates questions about issues that affect our lives to candidates seeking UNAC/UHCP endorsements, as well as AFSMCE endorsements, in the 2012 elections. UNAC/UHCP State Secretary Barbara Blake, RN, took a very active role in the forum, asking each candidate questions about staffing ratios, education, and their budget priorities. She also sought support for HR 2178, a bill on national staffing ratio guidelines, from sitting Members of Congress, and asked members of the California legislature to ensure that the California Board of Registered Nursing was restored as quickly as possible.
Check out the video below to see which candidates attended the event and to hear a sample of Blake’s questions.
Check out our brief video that explains your bargaining team. Both groups–the Case Managers/Patient Educators and the Midwives/WOCNs–are covered in this short two minute video that covers the nominations process and the how and why behind it. Curious why your facility has one representative? Want to know how a representational model works? Watch the video and find out!
On December 3, Kaiser case managers, patient educators, nurse midwives, and WOCNs gathered to celebrate their recent vote to join UNAC/UHCP and plan the next chapter of the journey.
Many reported morale in their units is very low. Said a case manager from Antelope Valley, “if the union wasn’t coming, I wouldn’t stay.”
Case managers at Kaiser Riverside spoke of losing benefits and worried because there is no cap on the number of patients they see. Said one RN, “they keep adding more and more to our workload.”
Bargaining for the Kaiser case managers, patient educators, nurse midwives, and WOCNs begins January 24, 2012.
During the Beverly Hospital organizing campaign, the subject of Parkview Community Hospital came up constantly—and Beverly management began spreading flat out lies. Fortunately UNAC/UHCP had a secret weapon—veteran RN Penny Brown, the first President of the Parkview Registered Nurses Association, who drove out to Montebello to personally set the facts straight. Penny, whose work is guided by the motto “pay it forward,” used her time with the nurses to talk about how she became an activist because of the strong support from the RNs from UNAC/UHCP during the unionization of her hospital.
Penny had been at Parkview for almost six years when UNAC/UHCP started organizing at the hospital. She became a leader of the effort, and the affiliate’s first President when Parkview joined UNAC/UHCP. She participated in all of the contract negotiations, and knew the stories Beverly management was telling its RNs about Parkview negotiations were simply untrue. Penny has recently begun work as the UNAC/UHCP Staff Representative for Parkview —taking her advocacy for Parkview nurses to the next level.
Penny has been married for 18 years to Derrick. She loves to go out dancing with him, or spend a quiet night at home watching a movie. They have three children: Brittney, 21, who will follow in her mother’s footsteps just as soon as she’s accepted into a nursing program; Derrick Jr., 18, recruited as quarterback on a football scholarship by University of Washington; and Chelsea, 13, who is a basketball superstar.
In her free time, Penny loves to garden, shop, or have lunch with her friends.
UNAC/UHCP nurses from Kaiser Panorama City are shown phone banking for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown in this news segment about the 2010 election. Voters will go to the polls on November 2.
Governor Jerry Brown announced late Tuesday he signed Senate Bill 98, the legislation reconstituting the California Board of Registered Nursing (BRN). The entire board will be reappointed under the new bill.
We Demand Quality Health Care at Beverly Hospital
