Salinas RNs Endorse Assembly Member Alejo’s Proposal
for Community Mediator to Settle Contract Dispute

 
Following 10 months of contentious talks that have failed to produce movement by stubborn hospital officials on demands that registered nurses say would jeopardize patient safety, including a management plan to eliminate about 10 percent of all bedside nurses at the hospital, Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital RNs said today that they support a proposal by State Assembly member Luis Alejo for a community mediator to work to resolve the dispute.

The California Nurses Association/National Nurses United represents over 400 RNs at the hospital.

In a statement today, Alejo called for a 30-day “cooling off” period between negotiators for both sides and asked both parties to agree to meet with a community mediator to resolve critical issues before proceeding to what is known as a “fact finding” in the collective bargaining process. 

“A community mediator gives us the opportunity to resolve our critical patient care concerns,” said Jeanne Hyashi, a SVMH RN. “Nurses want to continue to serve the community in which we live, and advocate for and care for our patients in the manner we know they deserve.”
 
SVMH RNs warn that the community hospital is seeking to follow the path of large, private corporate chains that are eroding standards of patient care with policies that put profits and cost cutting ahead of patient safety.

In August, SVMH management refused to accept Assignment Despite Objection, or ADO forms, which RNs submit to management to protest assignments that they say are unsafe for patients.  The ADO forms have highlighted growing problems with patient care throughout the facility, nurses say. Those include:

• Management’s refusal to assign RNs to monitor patient heart rates.
• An overall reduction in nurse staffing levels, leading to unsafe conditions. Studies have shown that nurse staffing is a critical component in patients’ morbidity rates and bedsores, as well as serious falls and other accidents.
• Delays in providing necessary physical therapy to recovering patients.
• The hospitals’ reliance on faulty electronic translation systems rather than interpreters.
• Nurse fatigue caused by extended work shifts and too little time off.

Negotiators at SVMH have steadfastly refused to budge on these and other issues despite the CNA’s objections and the very clear danger posed to patients’ well-being.
 
One symbol of the hospital’s desire to accelerate the dispute rather than work with nurses to solve problems that will improve quality of care, the nurses’ cite the hospital’s decision to hire the notorious, and highly expensive anti-union Littler Mendelson law firm.
 
“Hospital management should place the well being of the community ahead of pushing a conflict with nurses, many of whom have years of service to our patients and our neighbors,” said Sandra Martinez, RN. “We encourage the hospital to also accept Assembly member Alejo’s modest proposal to begin to move to end this dispute.”