More Need to Protect Security for RNs and their Families

The California Nurses Association today called the framework for an agreement for a new hospital at Cathedral Hill and preservation of St. Luke’s a “testament to the dedicated efforts of a broad community coalition and San Francisco nurses, but real healthcare and employment security for nurses and their families must be achieved before the deal is finalized.”

CNA and the 800 RNs who it represents at Sutter hospitals in San Francisco “have worked for many years to keep St. Luke’s hospital open for a medically underserved community,” said St. Luke’s RN Jane Sandoval who is also a board member of CNA.

“With the long determination of Sutter to close St. Luke’s, it is clear that this proposed agreement which includes a commitment to preserve St. Luke’s for the Mission area residents would never have been possible without the tireless work of the RNs and the many community groups that are part of San Franciscans for Healthcare, Housing, Jobs and Justice,” said Sandoval. “We salute them.”

The coalition, of which CNA is also a member “should also be proud of the significant improvements in this proposed agreement to secure additional affordable housing, mitigation of environmental impact, and a minimum charity care pledge as well as a commitment by California Pacific Medical Center to serve a substantial number of Medi-Cal patients,” said Sandoval.

“Now we call on those San Francisco Supervisors who have worked with nurses and the community coalition for these improvements to recognize that the work is not yet done,” Sandoval said.

“It is the registered nurses who are the heart and future of healthcare that will be delivered at the rebuilt CPMC hospital at Cathedral Hill and at St. Luke’s hospital. The RNs’ security and rights negotiated through a prompt, fair collective bargaining agreement is essential to completion of this proposed development pact,” Sandoval said.

“Our patients, their families, and this community count on the nurses when they are at their most vulnerable, in a hospital bed, and the nurses’ future is also at stake. We need to assure that this hardworking, professional workforce that is over 94 percent women is able to continue to work and live in San Francisco.”

CNA welcomed the statement by the coalition that “still outstanding is the need to achieve full labor peace with all of CPMC’s collective bargaining representatives… The coalition encourages CPMC to address these negotiations in the same spirit with which they have engaged” the parallel negotiations with the Supervisors, “and sees full labor peace as essential to the operation of these two new hospitals.”

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