UNAC News

Chino Valley Medical Center RNs Ratify First Contract

After a long battle, the registered nurses at Chino Valley Medical Center have ratified their first contract! Among the benefits won in the contract:

* No increase on health care costs over the life of the three-year contract
* Improvements in preceptor pay
* First ever guaranteed wage increase
* Protected Paid Time Off benefits
* Strong seniority rights
* Establishment of a Patient Care Committee
* Just cause, grievance and arbitration procedure

Chino Valley is the first Prime Healthcare hospital in the United States to win a union contract! The only other Prime Healthcare hospitals to achieve contracts were those with existing union contracts that were sold to Prime. This is a huge victory for the bargaining team, made up of nurses from Chino, UNAC/UHCP Chief Negotiator Barbara Lewis, and UNAC/UHCP Staff Representative Penny Brown, who began bargaining the first contract last summer.

We congratulate the nurses at Chino Valley, who with their first contract now have a voice on the job! A special note of congratulations goes out to the nurses on the bargaining team who fought bravely for this contract and deserve to savor this moment.

Union in Brief

Memphis —

Martin Luther King, Jr. helped organize AFSCME Local 1733 in Memphis, Tennessee, before he was assassinated. In April, UNAC/UHCP President Ken Deitz, RN, along with Volunteer Member Organizers Kita Stovall, RN, and Steve Rodriguez, RN, joined AFSCME members from all over the country to support 1733, facing privatization. “We have to get active,” said Kita, “because they are trying to break up unions. I’m not going to stand still, I’m stepping forward.”

Sacramento —

Bobbi Meyer, NP and Dennis Livingston, PA, lobbied in Sacramento recently for a package of bills introduced by State Senator Dr. Ed Hernandez to expand access to health care in California. “We believe this will greatly increase access to health care,” Meyer testified. Said Livingston, “We were there to educate legislators on how we could help meet the needs of patients in California.”

Fountain Valley —

The Bargaining Team and members at Fountain Valley … Read more

Charmaine Sunshine Morales, RN, Elected UNAC/UHCP Secretary

“I try my best to be the solution to any problem,” says Charmaine Morales, RN, UNAC/UHCP’s new Secretary. “My personal growth and union leadership development path have been made possible by saying yes. By getting involved. But most of all by listening.”

Charmaine has only been a UNAC/UHCP member for six years, but she’s risen fast, from a stand-out steward to Political Action Chair, 2012 Contract Specialist, and the affiliate Parliamentarian. During the 2011 contract battle at St. Francis, Charmaine organized an entire bus of South Bay members to picket with the St. Francis nurses, had they gone out on strike which luckily they did not. Instead, Charmaine organized a picket line with nurses at Long Beach Memorial Hospital, and led her affiliate’s work supporting UFCW’s local members during their contract battles in the summer of 2012. “Wow, that was fun!” she says. She’s been an innovator, instituting text alerts … Read more

Jettie Deden-Castillo, NP, Elected UNAC/UHCP Treasurer

“To be UNAC/UHCP Treasurer is a great honor and it will be a privilege to serve in this role.” NP Jettie Deden-Castillo’s vision for our union involves building unity between affiliates, between affiliates and the State office, between professions within the union. “The bottom line is that we’re all intertwined,” she says. “We are all one UNAC/UHCP.” One of the main reasons Jettie wanted to be Treasurer is the close relationship she’ll have with every affiliate through helping them manage their funds to best serve their members. “Their success is my success and therefore our entire union’s success.”

A nurse at Kaiser since 1977, Jettie was given a scholarship in 1979 to become an OB/GYN Nurse Practitioner—a union-negotiated benefit. “I will be indebted to UNAC/UHCP for life for that gift,” she says. In 2011 she became Contract Specialist at Downey and reports “It opened my eyes to the great work … Read more

Denise Duncan, RN, Elected UNAC/UHCP Executive Vice President

“If it’s right I will support it, and if it’s wrong I will fight against it,” says Denise Duncan, UNAC/UHCP’s new Executive Vice President. Denise saw the May 18, 2013 election as a sign of the union’s vitality, with multiple candidates running for each office and delegates more involved than ever before. “It really showed that there’s a lot of love for the union,” she said. “It made me proud.”

Denise’s history has been interwoven with UNAC/UHCP’s for over 27 years. “We’re no longer the same little boutique union,” she says, “but our mission is the same.” Denise became an activist early, then an affiliate officer, and a staff representative in 1993. She’s participated in nearly all the Kaiser contract negotiations since. She dove into Tenet and NUHHCE organizing drives. In 2004, The Journal of Nursing Care Quality published “Nurse Perceptions of Medication Errors,” a first-ever study to consult nurses … Read more

PRESS RELEASE: Corona Nurses Urge Hospital Administrators to Proceed Slowly with EHR Implementation

Corona Regional Medical Center will implement a paperless record system on June 2. This complicated health care IT system will be put in place despite urgent calls by the Corona nurses to provide additional training so that patients will not be at risk. Nurses at Corona mailed and faxed a letter to the Interim Chief Nursing Officer Sheila Martin on May 31, urging the hospital to delay the implementation so that patient safety is not at risk.

SB 491 Goes to Assembly, Would Expand NP and OD Scope of Practice

On May 29, the California Senate passed SB 491, the UNAC/UHCP endorsed bill authored by Sen Ed Hernandez that would expand the scope of practice for nurse practitioners, optometrists, and pharmacists.

The bill will now go to the California Assembly.

Read more about SB 491 on the UNAC/UHCP website. … Read more

Fountain Valley RNs & Professionals Protest Takeaways

FVPA had two days of eventful bargaining this week, which saw management submit an insulting counter to the Union’s compensation proposal on day one. On day two, dozens of RNs and professionals showed up to protest. But at noon management proposed to increase our contribution to our medical plans. Click through to learn more.