What I see for our union’s future is growth. Because we provide something that no other union provides, which is health care professionals taking care of health care professionals.
First elected as UNAC/UHCP treasurer in 2020, Peter has taken on staffing as a primary issue, focusing on short- and long-term solutions to deal with staffing shortages in every profession not just at the individual hospital level, but across the board. He bargained visionary new staffing language into our most recent contract with Kaiser Permanente. He is leading a union-wide effort to fight for members across California and Hawaii to have the staffing they need.
He has led or co-led bargaining on contracts for independents and Kaiser UNAC/UHCP affiliates, including SPNN, St. Francis, SCNSC, and the Kaiser National Agreement. As treasurer, he’s helped to update and streamline UNAC/UHCP’s financial department and spearheaded development of our app for members to report unsafe staffing assignments on their phones.
Prior to holding state office, he was a UNAC/UHCP staff rep and continued to work in the ICU–stepping up to volunteer for the first COVID units at Kaiser Woodland Hills. He’s served as affiliate treasurer and president, and VP of Nursing for NUHHCE.
He was raised by a single mother, a nurse, who strongly hinted, but never forced him, to follow in her footsteps. He had attended school for finance and eventually landed in nursing more than 20 years ago as a medical-surgical nurse, progressing to relief charge nurse in ICU in 2005.