News

Kempsey nurses see red over patient ratios

Staff at Kempsey District Hospital marked the start of the new financial year yesterday by wearing red. They joined colleagues from the NSW Nurses and Midwives Association (NSWNWA) in the statewide campaign for fixed nurse-to-patient ratios in rural public hospitals.

The Macleay Argus

July 2, 2013

Labor relations board to hear retaliation complaints against Sutter Solano

The National Labor Relations Board will hold a hearing Sept. 9 on complaints that Sutter Solano Medical Center violated federal law when it imposed higher health care costs on registered nurses and disciplined them in retaliation for their participation in a strike last year. Joseph Frankl, the San Francisco-based regional director of the NLRB, consolidated a series of complaints Wednesday and set the hearing date.

Sacramento Business Journal

June 28, 2013

Federal court sanctions BCH-Injunction orders hospital to stop interfering with nurses' legal rights

BARSTOW • A U.S. District Judge in Los Angeles issued a federal injunction against Barstow Community Hospital, ordering it to cease and desist its violations of the collective bargaining rights of its registered nurses, according to a news release from the California Nurses Association on Wednesday. Judge Christina Snyder issued the order in response to a complaint filed by the National Labor Relations Board following charges by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United that Barstow has repeatedly and systematically broken federal law with its refusal to hold contract talks and other abridgments of the RNs’ legal and democratic rights, the release states.

Desert Dispatch

June 27, 2013

Canadians Pay Taxes for Universal Health Care, and Now They're Richer Than Us

Many conservatives still characterize Medicaid as “welfare,” and many think of it as such. Presumably other types of health care coverage have been “earned” (think veterans and the military, highly paid executives, union members and congressional staff). We resent our tax dollars going to “freeloaders.” Until the slicing and dicing is ended, the finger pointing, blame shifting and their attendant political wars will continue.

Portside.org

June 25, 2013

Nobel Laureates Call on President Obama and Secretary Kerry to Reject the Keystone XL Pipeline

When 10 Nobel Laureates call on President Obama to reject once and for all the Keystone XL oil pipeline, perhaps it's time he do that. Ten recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize have written to President Obama and Secretary of State Kerry urging the rejection of the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline. The Laureates, many of whom urged the President to reject the pipeline in 2011, believe that now is the time for leadership by the United States on climate change. The rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline is a critical step in limiting the expansion of the Canadian oil sands - Canada's fastest growing source of greenhouse gas pollution. The oil sands also have devastating impacts on local land, water, air, and communities.

Portside

June 21, 2013

Hundreds of protesters make their way across the Golden Gate Bridge on Thursday

SAN FRANCISCO -- Calling a proposed oil pipeline across the nation's midsection a threat to public health in California, more than 1,000 nurses streamed across the Golden Gate Bridge on Thursday to urge that President Obama block its construction. It might not have seemed like an obvious target for nurses who had gathered for a convention in San Francisco, but the protesters - clad in red scrubs - said the connection between health problems and the proposed Keystone XL pipeline was real. The proposed 1,700-mile-long pipeline, which would carry oil from the tar sands oil fields in Canada to refineries in Texas, is a public health risk to all, even those a thousand miles away in San Francisco, said members of the group National Nurses United.

San Francisco Chronicle

June 20, 2013

Nurses Join Keystone XL Protest In California As New Report Warns Of Pipeline Health Risks

As both a mom and a nurse, Katy Roemer worries about the health risks posed by the Keystone XL pipeline -- from the chemicals leaching into waterways where the tar sands oil is extracted, to toxins spewing from stacks where the resource is refined. "We are already seeing people in our communities facing record levels of asthma and other impacts from pollution," said Roemer, who works at Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, Calif., and lives near refineries already processing the heavy, molasses-like Canadian oil. "The pipeline has the potential to exacerbate those impacts, and the impacts of global warming," she added.

Huffington Post

June 20, 2013

California governor urges nurses to use union power to raise awareness of climate change

SAN FRANCISCO — Gov. Jerry Brown on Thursday challenged his allies in the nation's largest nurses union to look beyond their own immediate concerns and help organize a movement to address global climate change. The Democratic governor enjoyed an enthusiastic reception from a packed room of nurses wearing red shirts at the National Nurses United conference in San Francisco. The union was a strong supporter of Brown in his 2010 gubernatorial race and helped him win voter support for his initiative raising the state's sales and income taxes last year. "You're a hell of a lot more radical, and forward and progressive than I am," the governor said. "I can't push you. You got to push me, but together we'll push our country to a much better place."

Associated Press

June 20, 2013

Eden Township pledges up to $20 million for San Leandro Hospital survival

CASTRO VALLEY -- Hopes that San Leandro Hospital will remain open as an acute care facility got a little brighter Wednesday night, with the Eden Township Healthcare District board of directors pledging up to $20 million in support. Eden, a grant-giving public agency without a hospital, had been petitioned for hefty financial support by various officials, a tall order given Eden's strapped budget, Eden officials have said. Still, on a 3-1 vote with one abstention, the district approved a motion to direct staff to "work collaboratively with Alameda Health System and the Alameda County Health Department to raise $20 million to support the second year of operation of San Leandro Hospital."

Contra Costa Times

June 20, 2013

Tom Steyer ups climate change pressure on Obama

On Thursday, San Francisco billionaire climate activist Tom Steyer is launching a new online campaign Thursday in Washington, D.C. to turn up the heat on his friend President Obama to do more to take on climate change — starting with urging him again to oppose the proposed Keystone XL pipeline. Called “We Love Our Land,” it will run at least 10 weeks and be based largely on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and later, Change.org. If some street demonstrations grow out of this, fine, organizers said, but that’s not the point. It is an argument aimed squarely at Obama supporters who are disappointed that he hasn’t done more on climate change.

Joe Garofoli for SF Chronicle

June 20, 2013