A message from our Union President, Leo Perez, RN, and our Executive Director, Rosanna Mendez,

This week, Nurses across the country are honored for the incredible work we do and the compassionate care we provide. For SEIU 121RN members, Nurses week means that we recognize our power, and all that we can achieve by using our collective voice.

Our union is dedicated to making hospitals safer throughout Southern California—for millions of patients and hundreds of thousands of frontline healthcare workers who care for them. We are equally committed to raising standards throughout our industry, so that we can do our jobs with dignity.

In the past year, we have made massive strides toward that goal. We’ve won incredible agreements at our hospitals—putting $60 million more in the pockets of SEIU 121RN members, while improving safety and security.

We won strong legislation in Sacramento, aimed at reducing the threat of violence healthcare workers face every day.

We grew our union by more than 300 new members—delivering transformational change to Nurses who never had a voice at work.

Let's take a look back at our victories over the last year:

• Our members joined bargaining teams at six hospitals. With the support of their co-workers, these teams negotiated contracts that members and their families can depend on. Their contracts will also improve safety and security for frontline healthcare workers and their patients.

• At our Dignity Health hospitals – St. John's Regional Medical Center, St. John's Hospital Camarillo, and Northridge Hospital Medical Center—Nurses and Licensed Professionals used their collective voice to deliver real improvements. Hundreds of Dignity members joined back-to-back pickets, supported by community leaders and elected officials. Nurses sounded the alarm about their patient safety concerns, drawing media coverage and creating a spectacle outside the hospitals. The show-of-force was too much for Dignity Health, and the contract was settled soon after—without the healthcare takeaways that management had been pushing at the table.

• We know we're stronger when every Nurse has the power of a union, and last year we were successful at growing our ranks. Nurses at Anaheim Regional Medical Center filed for their very first union election in July. Just a month later, an overwhelming majority voted YES to be represented by SEIU 121RN. Hundreds of Nurses said YES to better wages, a voice on the job, and quality care. Now, these same Nurses are at the bargaining table, negotiating their first union contract. Emboldened by their new sense of power, the Anaheim RNs came out in force on the picket line in April to make their demands known.

• Through tireless organizing, SEIU 121RN members built union power throughout our hospitals and political power in Sacramento. We led the campaign to pass Assembly Bill 2975—the Secure Hospitals for All bill—which won nearly unanimous support in the state legislature, and was signed into law by Governor Newsom. The law requires hospitals to install weapons detection systems at key entrances where weapons can get in—staffed 24/7 by properly trained personnel. It also prevents hospitals from assigning Nurses to the dangerous job of searching patients bags and seizing weapons—so that we can focus on providing care.

• We continued our multi-year campaign for real enforcement of our Nurse-to-patient ratios. Our Union's Secretary-Treasurer, Joyce Powell, was a witness at the Senate Subcommittee hearing on CDPH's failure to hold hospitals accountable for breaking the law. Lawmakers grilled California Department of Public Health representatives on the lack of enforcement and data.

That hearing set the stage for priority legislation we introduced this year, Senate Bill 596. The bill will create real enforcement. It will:

1. Set tight timelines for the investigation of out-of-ratio complaints,
2. End the practice of bundling complaints, so that penalties are issued for each violation, and,
3. It will legally define the "call list" process hospitals must follow to meet ratio requirements.

• The hearing was covered by CalMatters, in a heart-wrenching story about the impact of unsafe staffing on a patient.

"If the allegations made in this case are true, what happened to Josh Saeta demonstrates the real human cost when unsafe hospital staffing goes unchecked," —SEIU 121RN President Leo Perez in CalMatters.

Our Local has led the fight for enforcement of safe staffing laws in California, beginning with our campaign to pass SB 227 in 2019, and continuing with our Patients Can't Wait campaign to make sure hospitals are held accountable for violating the law. SB 596 is the culmination of these efforts—and we'll need your help to make sure it passes. If you've faced unsafe staffing, please share your story.

These are your victories—all of them won because of the hard work, tenacity and leadership of our members. This Nurses week, we recognize your dedication as advocates at the bedside and beyond. We hope to see you at one of the SEIU 121RN-sponsored Nurses Week events this week at your hospital, so we can celebrate together.