Just days after we notified AHMC that we are taking to the streets to demand safe patient care, we have had some wins at the bargaining table. Let’s take this momentum forward into next Friday’s informational picket and send a strong message to management that our patients must come first!
In our latest bargaining session we reached tentative agreement on:
- Bargaining unit work - protects Nurses’ jobs, prevents managers from taking patient assignments
- Holidays - ALL hours on the night shift during which the holiday begins will now be paid at the holiday rate
- Leaves of absence - expanded ability to take time off when you need to
- Fair, progressive discipline - limited duration of investigations so Nurses won’t be subject to endless fishing expeditions, and so that old disciplinary actions may expire
We will never stop fighting for our patients. Now is the time to keep up the fight, because your bargaining team insists on fixing the unsafe floating problems at our hospital.
We insist on including language from title 22 in the contract so we can enforce safe staffing through the union in addition to Nurses reporting to the appropriate agencies.
We insist that Nurses only be floated if they have validated competencies, and that Nurses’ objections are heard without any threat of discipline.
Member Voices
A few weeks ago I was floated to the ICU and given two very high acuity COVID patients. One of them had at least five drips. I tried to object to the charge nurse that I didn’t have the appropriate competency to be assigned safely to these patients, but they ignored my concerns. After I continued to object very strongly and put another charge nurse on notice that the assignment was unsafe, it was eventually changed. But things never should have gotten to that point. We need to fix floating in our hospital for the sake of our patients’ safety.
Linda Osayamwen 3W
