From April 15 to April 17, actors, janitors, longshore workers, and many others along with community supporters will march 28 miles from Hollywood to the docks of San Pedro. These individuals will symbolize over 350,000 workers in L.A. County who, this year, will be fighting to build the middle class or move themselves out of poverty. Joining the historic Hollywood to the Docks march, organized by the L.A. County Federation of Labor, are UNAC/UHCP activists Scott Byington, an intensive care nurse at St. Francis, and Larry Rick, physician assistant at Kaiser South Bay.

“I have experienced first hand the way diminished access to health care is fraying our communities,” says Byington, in an interview posted on the event website. “We need more access to quality health care in our communities. And we need better security now so nurses and doctors can do our jobs: heal people.”

Rick says he’s walking 28 miles not only to support his UNAC/UHCP colleagues at St. Francis, but also to thank the L.A. County fire fighters for saving his home during last fall’s devastating blazes. These fire fighters are among the union members negotiating a new contract this year. “As a health care professional, I interact with Los Angeles area public servants all the time,” says Rick. “The police, fire fighters and paramedics are there for you when you are in trouble, and I must say ‘thank you’ to them all.”

Several nurses from Kaiser South Bay will be staffing a mobile medical van traveling with the walkers, who will stop for rallies and community events along the way, ending up at a huge rally at the docks in San Pedro. UNAC/UHCP activists will give thirsty walkers water at their Tuesday afternoon stop—a street theater play dramatizing the governor’s proposed budget cuts.

Check out the walk route, event schedule and interviews with walkers at www.hollywoodtothedocks.com .

Parkview Nurses Win a Voice in Patient Care

ER nurse Don Griffin added, “Being in a union is going to help build Parkview into a better hospital. Now we have the support we need to make life better for ourselves and our patients.”

By voting to join UNAC/UHCP, the nurses will have a voice in providing consistent, high-quality healthcare for their patients. They will have the opportunity to communicate on a level playing field with hospital administration about several issues that directly impact patient care, such as productivity, patient morbidity and employee turnover. Research shows that turnover decreases in hospitals where employees have a union. Now Parkview will have a competitive edge compared to other hospitals vying to attract health care workers amid a serious nursing shortage.

The nurses will now be going to the bargaining table with Parkview administrators to determine the best ways to improve Parkview and the care it provides its patients.

“Nurses are the first line of defense in healthcare,” said UNAC/UHCP President Kathy Sackman, RN.  “They know best what their patients need and are deeply committed to providing the highest quality of care.  Now that they are able to speak up for themselves and their patients, Parkview nurses will be able to help the administration improve the care the hospital provides to its patients.”

Photos by Eve Rojas

Parkview Nurses Make Their Voices Heard

Earning attention from TV, radio and newspaper reporters, the nurses at Parkview who want to form a union are making their voices heard.

As supporters cheered, NICU nurse Deirdre Kirkwood told her story at a January 18 news conference: “I want a union at Parkview. I want a union because I love Parkview, and I want to make it better,” said Kirkwood, who was unfairly fired by Parkview administrators.

The Riverside Press-Enterprise covered the story of the nurses calling for a free and fair union election, as did the Inland Empire Weekly newspaper and the local National Public Radio station, KPCC.

Listen to the KPCC news story
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Check out this great coverage of our Parkview campaign on AFSCME's website.

The Parkview nurses also earned coverage on KPFK-FM radio and KZSW, the local Riverside cable television station.

Hillary Clinton, Riverside Councilman Support Parkview Nurses

Surrounded by supporters, including a Riverside city councilman, registered nurse Deirdre Kirkwood called on Parkview Community Hospital to let her go back to work after she was unfairly fired for trying to form a union with UNAC/UHCP for a voice on the job.

“I love Parkview, and I want my job back,” proclaimed Deirdre, a seven-year neonatal intensive care nurse, at a news conference on January 18 outside the hospital.

Deirdre and her fellow nurses were also buoyed by a letter from presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, expressing support for their campaign. “I believe that when nurses join together in a union, they not only improve the quality of their own jobs, but also the quality of care for patients,” Clinton wrote in a letter to Parkview CEO Doug Drumwright, asking him to ensure a free and fair union election process.

Although she has a spotless performance record, Deirdre was fired with no warning on January 4. The human relations manager told her there was “poor morale” at the hospital and it was “cleaning house.” At the news conference, Deirdre distributed a notarized letter authorizing Parkview to release her employment files to the public.

“With a clean record, I can only conclude that the reason I was fired was because I am helping form a union at Parkview,” Deirdre said. “It’s true that I want a union at Parkview. I want a union because I love Parkview and I want to make it better.”

After the firing, Parkview administrators began a campaign of intimidation and harassment against Deirdre and other nurses who support the union. They called police when supporters tried to tell Deirdre’s story to employees outside the hospital. Security guards took pictures and video taped nurses talking to union supporters. An administrator and two managers even tried to muscle their way into a private union organizing meeting at Deirdre’s church. UNAC/UHCP filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board against Parkview.

“We want Parkview to stop this kind of behavior,” Deirdre said. “We are asking Parkview to allow the nurses to have a fair union election, free from harassment and intimidation.”

“Parkview has a choice,” said Kathy Sackman, RN, UNAC/UHCP President. “It can keep battling its nurses. Or it can allow the nurses to choose for themselves whether to have a union.”

Riverside City Councilman Andrew Melendrez added his voice to the nurses’ campaign. “It is extremely important that we maintain our dignity, and we ask the administration to do the same,” he said. “I am proud to be among nurses who are passionate and committed to their jobs.”

Kicking Off the New Year With The Fight For Good Jobs and Health Care

January 2, 2008

These UNAC/UHCP members are standing with more than 350,000 working people in 30 different local unions throughout Los Angeles County who will fight for good jobs as they renegotiate contracts in 2008.

To launch these campaigns, the L.A. County Federation of Labor brought together more than 1,000 union activists—including a dozen UNAC/UHCP members—for a boisterous Delegates Congress in December at the Century Plaza Hotel.

UNAC/UHCP members at St. Francis are getting overwhelmed with emergency room admissions, including gunshot wounds, ever since the shutdown of nearby Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital last summer. During negotiations, the nurses will bargain for additional security measures. “We need your help to keep our patients safe,” St. Francis RN Scott Byington told the 1,000 cheering fellow union members at the Congress.

At the gathering, union members heard from elected officials including Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Congresswomen Hilda Solis and Laura Richardson, as well as from construction workers, security officers, and port truck drivers who are struggling to form unions.

Joining with fellow union members to map out ways to connect bargaining, organizing and political action in 2008 left UNAC/UHCP member Myrna Madriaga feeling energized. “Having a union means having a voice,” said Madriaga, a registered nurse at Kaiser Panorama City. “And joining together with other unions gives us an even more powerful voice.”

Above, UNAC/UHCP activist Scott Byington, RN, flanked by fellow union members addresses the Delegates Congress

SPNN Members Launch Quality Liaison Initiative

As part of their hard-won contract this summer, members of the Sharp Professional Nurses Network negotiated a new quality initiative giving health care workers a bigger voice in patient care. The quality liaison program will involve nurses in identifying and resolving concerns about the quality of patient care. The quality liaisons will work with fellow union members and activists, as well as staff representatives, to tackle issues such as staffing ratios and meals and breaks.

SPNN activists are recruiting quality liaisons now. Are you a SPNN member who is passionate about quality patient care? Then click here to download a flier with more information about the quality liaison initiative and how to apply.

UNAC/UHCP activists Tom Lewandowski, Judi Maxwell and Asela Espiritu join the Labor Day picnic in Banning Park

Cold Water, Hot Fun for Labor Day 2007

Sept. 4, 2007

Joining with hundreds of other union members from across Los Angeles, UNAC/UHCP activists marched in the annual Labor Day parade, spoke out for health care reform—and cooled off hot and sweaty picnickers by giving out free bottles of much-appreciated ice cold water.

Sporting signs that read “Put Patients First,” and “Nurses for Quality Care,” UNAC/UHCP marchers were greeting by cheers and applause at the morning parade in Wilmington. At the afternoon rally in Banning Park, UNAC/UHCP activist Asela Espiritu challenged her fellow union members to speak out for health care reform.

“Everyday, what I see and hear convinces me we need to reform health care,” Espiritu said. “How many of you know a friend, neighbor or family member who spent 6 or even 12 hours in the ER waiting to be treated?” she asked the crowd. “Have you waited for long hours wondering what happened to your loved ones after surgery because there is no bed available? Or people who have an operation but can’t afford follow up care or the medications to keep them well?” she asked. “This is a crisis,” said Espiritu. “It’s time for our elected officials in Sacramento and in Washington, D.C., to reform our broken health care system.”

While continuing to work toward universal health care for all, UNAC/UHCP and other unions in California are calling for changes to a bill currently under consideration by state lawmakers that would improve access to health care. With only a few days to go in the legislative session, union members and health care advocates are urging lawmakers and the governor to include cost containment and affordability measures in the bill.

For more information and to take action today, visit the California Labor Federation website.

Asela Espiritu urges fellow union members to support health care reform.

Union Nurses Get Some RESPECT at State Capitol

UNAC/UHCP activists are speaking out for RESPECT in our state capitol. Registered Nurses Scott Byington and Corinne Hollings recently traveled to Sacramento and testified at a hearing in support of Assembly Joint Resolution 28, which would put California lawmakers on record backing the RESPECT Act pending in the U.S. Congress.

The Re-empowerment of Skilled and Professional Employees and Construction Tradeworkers (RESPECT) Act would undo the damage inflicted by the National Labor Relations Board in its so-called Kentucky River decision last year. The board issued a ruling making it easier for employers to unfairly classify millions of working people—including nurses—as “supervisors” and stripping us of our union rights. Patients will suffer if nurses don’t have a voice on the job to be effective advocates.

“Supervisors are often not allowed to speak for patients, because if they say something negative, they risk getting fired,” Byington told the Assembly Labor and Employment Committee, which passed the resolution. “I’ve seen supervisors step down from management and become union members and then become very vocal about patient care,” said Byington, who works at St. Francis Medical Center. The full Assembly passed the resolution as well.

The Sacramento trip built on our successful contract negotiations with Kaiser Permanente, Tenet and (most recently) Sharp HealthCare to preserve nurses’ voices for patient care on the job in the face of the NLRB’s unfair ruling. We also lobbied senators and U.S. representatives during AFSCME’s National Nurse Congress in Washington, D.C.

Contract your members of Congress today and encourage them to co-sponsor the RESPECT Act.

SPNN Nurses Ratify New Contract with Sharp HealthCare

A SPNN member casts her ballot

July 19, 2007

In a big victory for quality patient care in San Diego, SPNN nurses ratified a new contract that includes a stronger voice for frontline caregivers in quality improvements.

“The 3,400 nurses at Sharp will now have a real say in quality of care issues,” says Corinne Hollings, RN, president of the Sharp Professional Nurses Network.

Highlights of the agreement include

• A real voice for nurses in quality of care issues such as staffing through a binding dispute resolution process;
• A new retiree health care initiative; 
• Significant improvements in financial security in retirement, honoring long-term nurses’ lifetime commitment to patients;
• Competitive wages; and 
• A resolution of issues around nurses’ access to their union representatives.

The nurses pledge to issue an annual report to the community documenting the steps they are taking to improve the quality of patient care using the tools in the new contract.

In response to the National Labor Relations Board’s notorious “Kentucky River” decision, the contract also protects nurses from being classified as “supervisors” and stripped of their voice on the job.

SPNN members will receive more detailed information in the mail shortly.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T: Not Just a Great Song, A Great Bill for Nurses

May 9, 2007

SPNN President Corinne Hollings brushes up for her lobbying meeting at the office of Sen. Dianne Feinstein during the AFSCME-UNA Nurse Congress.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T is a great song by Aretha Franklin. It’s also the name of an important bill pending in the U.S. Congress. During National Nurses Week, UNAC/UHCP activists and union nurses from all over the country stormed Capitol Hill to demand RESPECT, which stands for the Re-empowerment of Skilled and Professional Employees and Construction Tradeworkers Act.

The bill would undo the damage inflicted by the National Labor Relations Board in its so-called Kentucky River decision last year. The board issued a ruling making it easier for employers to unfairly classify millions of working people—including nurses—as “supervisors” and stripping us of our union rights. Patients will suffer if nurses don’t have a voice on the job to be effective advocates .

“We are the voice for patients who can’t speak for themselves,” Scott Byington, RN, told staffers for Sen. Dianne Feinstein during an intense lobbying day on Capitol Hill May 8. The NLRB’s unfair ruling “takes the nurses’ voice away from the bedside” and must be changed, he said.

While some UNAC/UHCP members lobbied their members of Congress, others attended a Congressional committee hearing on the proposed legislation, listening to fellow nurse Lori Gay of Salt Lake City, Utah, whose union drive was thwarted when a large chunk of nurses in her unit were deemed to be "supervisors." Click here to read her full testimony and watch a webcast of the hearing. "We congratulated Lori for her courage and standing up for her rights, which are also our rights," said Mary Brownridge, RN, a UNAC/UHCP member at Kaiser Bellflower.

UNAC/UHCP members have been combating the ruling by negotiating with employers to preserve our union voice. Standing together, union members worked with Kaiser Permanente and Tenet to negotiate contract language ensuring nurses aren’t stripped of their rights. But we need laws, in addition to strong contract language, to uphold these rights, said Corinne Hollings, the president of the UNAC/UHCP affiliate at Sharp HealthCare in San Diego, the Sharp Professional Nurses Network (SPNN).

SPNN is negotiating a new contract with Sharp—and ensuring nurses’ union rights is on the bargaining table. “We know what life was like before the union and we don’t want to go back,” said Hollings. “Protecting our rights shouldn’t be an issue in 2007,” she says. “We need unions more than ever today, with exorbitant CEO salaries while the average worker is barely keeping up.”

As UNAC/UHCP activists were in Washington, D.C., lobbying for the RESPECT Act during AFSCME’s National Nurse Congress, members back home in Southern California are e-mailing their elected officials as well. Click here to learn more and send an e-mail today to your members of Congress.

Photo by Bill Burke

UNAC/UHCP Activist Testifies at State Capitol for Safe Lifting Bill

April 24, 2007

Calling a proposed lift team bill “a triple win” for hospitals, patients and nurses, UNAC/UHCP member Barbara Owens, RN, traveled to Sacramento to testify in favor of the legislation and make the voices of union health care professionals heard.

After listening to Owens, the state Senate Labor and Industrial Relations Committee passed S.B. 171, which would require hospitals to establish a zero lift policy. S.B. 171 would help prevent the back, neck and shoulder injuries caused by lifting patients without the proper help.  The Senate Appropriations Committee held a hearing on the bill on April 23 and will take it up at the end of May. A parallel bill, A.B. 371, is making its way through Assembly committees as well.

“In an era of serious nursing shortages, this bill will ensure strong laws that will keep health care professionals healthy and working, caring for our patient population that is older, sicker and heavier,” Owens, a workplace safety leader at Kaiser Woodland Hills, told lawmakers.

 If the provisions of S.B. 171 sound familiar, they should. The state legislature has passed safe lifting bills three times—and three times has Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed them. UNAC/UHCP members aren’t giving up: we’re emailing our elected officials to urge their support of the bill.

Safe lifting is one of the four issues UNAC/UHCP members are discussing with their state senators and assembly members in a series of visits to the lawmakers’ district offices. We’re also making our voices heard on health care reform, nurse education and safe-staffing ratios. Are you interested in meeting lawmakers in their home district offices? Then call the UNAC/UHCP office at 800-762-5874, and let State Secretary Barbara Blake know.

Michele Wargo-Sugleris, Hali McCravy and Barbara Owens, UNAC/UCHP activists at Kaiser Woodland Hills, discuss priority issues with Assemblywoman Julia Brownley (in blue jacket) at her district office.