How we win the best contracts in the nation

“Your first CNA/NNU contract will provide you with an opportunity to work with your nurse colleagues to improve conditions for nurses and enhance protections for patients. With a CNA/NNU contract, your employer cannot unilaterally change your working conditions or reduce salaries and benefits. Any changes in the workplace must be negotiated between management and RNs. You will elect your nurse colleagues who will represent you at the bargaining table, and of course vote on your contract.”

Janice Webb, RN CNA Board Member
UC San Diego Medical Center — San Diego, California

Step 1

Facility Bargaining Council (FBC) and RN Negotiating Team Established — The FBC is the crucial link between the negotiating team and all nurses in the bargaining unit, with representatives from every shift and unit. The FBC elects the nurse negotiating team. The size of the team is based on the number of RNs in the bargaining unit at your facility.

Step 2

Nurses Decide What is Important: Bargaining Survey and Development of Proposals — The FBC distributes a bargaining survey to every staff RN to get their opinions on a wide array of facility-wide and unit-specific issues from professional education benefits to holidays and floating policies. The results of these surveys help to determine bargaining priorities.

Step 3

Nurses are Directly Involved in Negotiations — The elected nurse negotiating team and a CNA/NNU staff labor representative sit across the table from the management team. CNA/NNU provides orientation and training. The negotiating team keeps nurses informed through the publication of regular bargaining updates. General meetings occur at critical junctures throughout the negotiating process.

Step 4

Nurses Vote on the Contract — When the team reaches a tentative agreement, it is brought back to the nurses for discussion and a vote. Before any contract goes into effect it must be approved by a majority of the RNs at the facility in a secret ballot vote.

What’s in a contract?

Most CNA/NNU contracts include these major elements
(specifics of a contract vary from facility to facility)

• Professional Practice Committee
  • Elected staff nurse committee that addresses staffing and practice issues, meeting on paid time in the facility.
• Protections Against Unsafe Floating
• Restrictions on Mandatory Overtime
• Annual Salary Increases and Regular Longevity Step Increases
• Differentials
  • Weekend, shift, charge, and preceptor.
• Nurse Representatives
  • Elected staff RN representatives from your unit who can assist you in interpreting your contract, filing a grievance, and organizing and communicating within your facility.
• Vacation, Sick Leave, and Holidays
• Paid Educational Leave
• Retirement Plan
• Health Benefits
• Staffing Ratios
• Technology Protections
  • Ensuring that new technology won’t replace RN professional judgment.
• Grievance and Arbitration
  • Procedure Formal procedures for resolving issues with management.
• Per Diem Rights