New Contracts at St. Joseph Eureka, Redwood Memorial, Queen of the Valley, St. Mary Apple Valley

Registered nurses at one of the nation’s largest Catholic health chains, Providence St. Joseph Health (PSJH), voted this week to ratify their first ever union contracts at Queen of the Valley in Napa and Redwood Memorial Hospital in Fortuna—as well as new agreements for St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka and St. Mary Medical Center in Apple Valley, California Nurses Association/National Nurses United (CNA/NNU) announced today.  

“The ratification of these contracts sets a model for all St. Joseph RNs—including St. Jude Medical Center in Orange County, which will be voting on whether to join CNA this month—of what can be accomplished when RNs stand together,” said CNA Co-President Deborah Burger, RN. “With a collective voice through CNA, nurses at all four of these hospitals have won important protections for patient care. They should be very proud.”

Key features in the contracts include staffing improvements to promote patient safety, economic improvements to promote retention of experienced RNs and recruit new nurses, and critical healthcare protections, including a new RN supplement package for nurses injured in workplace violence or by needle stick accidents. Highlights include:

Queen of the Valley Medical Center (QVMC), Napa, CA, first contract:

• Safe staffing provisions—including staffing according to patients’ severity of illness or injury, rather than to an arbitrary grid.
• Establishment of a Professional Practice Committee (PPC) of elected bedside nurses to track staffing and better advocate for patients.
• Guaranteed meal and rest breaks to fight nurse fatigue which, according to many studies (including a 2006 study in the American Journal of Critical Care) can compromise patient care—and can negatively affect nurses’ health and safety.
• Economic gains to help with nurse recruitment and retention, that include across-the board wage increases and a new wage scale that will result in an overall average increase of 25 percent over the three years of the agreement.

“Today is a huge victory, three years in the making, and it’s because Queen nurses stuck together and stood strong,” said QVMC Marylou Bahn, RN. “We won important protections for our patients, for safe staffing, and for recruiting and retaining experienced nurses for our community. Our RNs can be very proud of what we accomplished.”

Redwood Memorial Hospital, Fortuna, CA, first contract:

• Safe staffing provisions—including staffing according to patients’ severity of illness/injury, rather than to an arbitrary grid. The contract also bans mandatory “floating” of nurses to St. Joseph Eureka, where they may be unprepared to work outside their typical unit, a practice which nurses say puts patients at risk.
• Establishment of a Professional Practice Committee (PPC) of elected bedside nurses to track staffing and better advocate for patients.
• Guaranteed meal and rest breaks to fight nurse fatigue.
• Economic gains including across-the-board wage increases of 14% over three years, a freeze on health care premium costs, and an increase in standby pay to $10/hour.

"Redwood Nurses are thrilled to have voted to approve our first contract,” said Redwood Memorial RN Linda Gelphman. “Since joining CNA last August, our nurse negotiation team has been working hard to bargain a contract to provide safe staffing as well as wages and benefits to recruit and retain the best nurses to our community hospital. We achieved that goal and we are honored that our nurses have voted to approve this agreement." 

St. Mary Medical Center, Apple Valley, CA:

• Improved health care benefits and protections, with no increases to costs during the life of the agreement.  
• Additional RN holiday and educational leave, including opportunities to advance nurse education with paid time off.
• Economic gains including an across-the-board wage increases of 14% over three years, new wage step increases for veteran nurses of 30-years, and an increase in standby pay to $10/hour.

“This agreement really upholds our ability to provide the best possible care for our patients and our community,” said Lois Sanders, RN. “We believe, and it’s been proven, that when we stand together we are stronger, and there is no stopping us.”

St. Joseph Eureka:

• Safe staffing provisions—including requiring management to provide a certain number of break nurses, in accordance with how many RNs have been assigned patients, to ensure nurses are able to take meal and rest breaks, fighting fatigue.
• Return to a “float pool,” meaning that nurses who “float” outside of their typical unit will come from a specific pool of well-trained nurses, reducing unsafe floating of RNs who are not prepared to work outside their unit.
• Economic gains including an across-the-board wage increases of 14% over three years, new wage step increases for veteran nurses of 25-years and 30-years, and an increase in standby pay to $10/hour.

"Eureka nurses truly believe this is our best contact since we joined CNA almost 15 years ago. We made major improvements in our staffing and floating language, which will make our hospital safer for patients and nurses,” said Susan Johnson, RN. “We’ve also made major economic gains that will make it easier to keep great nurses here in Humboldt county.”

CNA represents nearly 4000 PSJH nurses and nearly 100,000 RNs throughout the state.