The College Hospital Cerritos RN Bargaining Team over the past several months has been hard at work negotiating their first contract with management. So far they have completed negotiations on nine articles, including the article that includes staffing. Staffing is a major concern for College RNs.

The most significant win so far is an agreement that management will provide all employees with personal alarms. These alarms will allow employees to call for help if they feel they are in danger. While workers at other mental health facilities have only received alarms after serious tragedies and directives from the state, College Hospital workers fought and won these crucial resources before anyone was killed or permanently disabled. The concept, language and push came particularly from our SEIU 121RN membership, who provided a plethora of research and laid the groundwork for this article.

Our Union and the management teams have tentatively agreed upon a side letter that creates a separate RN committee to address RN issues, in addition to the Joint Labor Management Committee in which RNs and Service/Tech workers will be paid to participate. RNs also fought separately to protect their Bargaining Unit work. They won mandatory floating and/or flexing for Shift Supervisors picking up overtime before any Union RN is flexed off or floated. And management may not create supervisory job openings or positions that reduce the RN Bargaining Unit or the availability of work for Union RNs.

Another victory is seniority, which includes a three-month bidding process for job openings. This protects senior employees from the potential loss of a position if they are on leave or vacation, and holds management accountable to fill open positions with existing staff when possible.

We also won mandatory Union orientation as part of the new employee orientation.

Congratulations College Hospital Cerritos RNs on a strong start to your new collective bargaining agreement!