Your Union bargaining team proposed that staffing assignments be made according to patient acuity, not by department alone. (In other words, safe staffing requires not just following the numeric nurse-to-patient ratios mandated by state law, but assigning nurses fewer patients than the legal maximum when the severity of patients' conditions indicates it is warranted to do so.)
We also proposed a much-needed resource Nurse for Post Partum and a prohibition on assigning Post Partum and L&D Nurses to patients in two different departments at one time. Every patient deserves a Nurse who’s not expected to be in two places at once.
The other lively discussion was about the importance of PROTECTING and MAINTAINING our current free health insurance. It’s not only that it’s fair and just to continue providing free health insurance for people providing valuable care to their community. It’s also important that our hospital recruit and retain quality Nurses.
Any degradation of benefits is sure to cause an exodus, and patients deserve safe staffing levels and a stable workforce.
We presented management with proposals on these and several other topics:
- Maintaining current medical insurance
- Adding Union bulletin boards for better communication
- Improving floating practices
- Equal employment opportunities
- Seniority
- Call-off and cancellation
- Staffing by acuity
- Post Partum & L&D assignments
Our proposals are based what you told us in your bargaining surveys, and we will be presenting more proposals in future sessions.
Winning a great contract takes all of us! Talk to a Bargaining Team member or our Union Rep to join the Contract Action Team and help keep our colleagues informed! — Your Bargaining Team
