Press releases

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Federal Court Blocks Sutter Alta Bates Summit Bid to Roll Back RN Jobs, Health Coverage

A U.S. federal court judge late Friday blocked an attempt by Sutter Health’s Alta Bates Summit Medical Center to unilaterally impose sweeping cuts on its entire registered nurse workforce that threatened job rights and health coverage for 1,700 RNs in Oakland and Berkeley. U.S. District Court Judge Richard Seeborg issued a temporary restraining order finding that the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United, which brought the request, “has shown that its member nurses are likely to suffer irreparable harm in the absence of preliminary relief,” and that a TRO “is in the public interest.”

California Nurses Association
March 3, 2014

Nurses Urge DC Council to Pass Emergency Safe Staffing Bill

Washington, DC registered nurses today called on the District of Columbia Council to pass an emergency bill to immediately improve patient care with minimum standards for safe nurse staffing in DC hospitals – and end a delay on the bill that has been fiercely opposed by a hospital industry that the nurses say has been putting their focus on budget goals and profits ahead of patient safety.

National Nurses United
March 3, 2014

Baystate VNA Nurses File Charge Against Baystate Health With the NLRB for Bad Faith Bargaining

SPRINGFIELD, MA -- The Massachusetts Nurses Association/National Nurses United, on behalf of registered nurses of the Baystate Visiting Nurses Association & Hospice (BVNA&H), has filed a formal charge against Baystate Health with the National Labor Relations Board for bargaining in bad faith in negotiations for a new contract. The charge is the latest in a series of complaints filed against Baystate Health for its dealings with the nurses, both at the BVNA&H and during negotiations with the nurses at Baystate Franklin Medical Center.

Massachusetts Nurses Association / NNU
February 27, 2014

Kaiser RNs Condemn the Downgrading of Care for New Oakland Hospital

Kaiser Permanente registered nurses will be holding a vigil Thursday to denounce major patient care reductions proposed for the new Oakland facility which is currently under construction and expected to open this summer, the California Nurses Association announced today. Kaiser is attempting to cut 75 nursing positions in the move to the new hospital. But nurses across all units said that they are responsible for more patients per shift than ever before. The reduction in direct-care RNs comes at a time when six out of 10 insured Californians have Kaiser, a number that is expected to increase significantly under the Affordable Care Act.

California Nurses Association
February 26, 2014

California Nurses Join National March for Climate Action

As a national march convenes Saturday morning in Los Angeles for action to address the growing crisis of climate change, registered nurses will be on hand to highlight the human toll of the climate crisis. A 9 a.m. rally at Wilmington Waterfront Park in Wilmington, Ca, adjacent to C Street near the port will be followed by a march, which is the first leg of a national series of actions intended to build public demand for real solutions to address the worsening climate crisis.

CNA/ NNU
February 25, 2014

Sutter Tracy Community Hospital Proposes Nurses Accept Short-Staffing and Deteriorating Conditions

Registered Nurses at Sutter Tracy Community Hospital (STCH) will hold an informational picket on Thursday to protest management's continued refusal to take serious action on substantive contract issues after over twenty months at the bargaining table. Safe patient care has been a key focus in contract negotiations between Sutter management and the nurses who voted in March 2012 to affiliate with the California Nurses Association, the state’s largest organization of RNs. Management continues to thwart the bargaining progress and stifle RNs efforts to improve conditions at the hospital, nurses say.

California Nurses Association
February 25, 2014

Sen. Sherrod Brown Visits Ohio Affinity RNs

In an important visit with registered nurses Affinity Medical Center of Massillon, Oh on the eve of their first court-mandated contract bargaining talks with hospital management, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown praised the nurses for their “courage” in fighting for improved protections for patients and their own rights and standards. Noting the heavy presence of management staff surrounding the RNs, Brown also praised the nurses for their determination in standing up to the tactics of intimidation.

NNOC/NNU
February 20, 2014

Nurses Call on California Board to Adopt Strong Standards to Stem Hospital Workplace Violence

The California Nurses Association/National Nurses United will step up the call today for tougher state standards to stem a growing problem of workplace violence in California hospitals. At a Sacramento hearing this morning before the California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board, CNA RNs will describe how too many hospitals have lax standards and protocols for responding to workplace violence. The hearing was set for this morning at the State Resources Building Auditorium.

California Nurses Association
February 20, 2014

Harry Potter, Walking Dead celebrities team up to promote Wall Street tax

Forget flesh-eating zombies and Lord Voldemort, celebrities seen in Harry Potter movies and the Walking Dead TV show are now going up against some real power. In a short film released February 18, some big film stars promote a financial transaction tax, which Wall Street lobbyists and their European counterparts fiercely oppose. The three-minute film’s director is David Yates, who made the last four Harry Potter movies. Actors include: Andrew Lincoln (star zombie-fighter on the hit AMC TV show “The Walking Dead”), Bill Nighy (“The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” and “Love, Actually”), Javier Cámara (star of Pedro Almodóvar films “Talk to Her” and “Bad Education”), Clémence Poésy (“Harry Potter”), and Heike Makatsch (“Love, Actually”).

Robin Hood Tax/NNU
February 18, 2014

Alta Bates Summit RNs Warn Staffing Shortages Pose Increasing Risk for Oakland, Berkeley Patients

Over the past year alone, Alta Bates Summit RNs have submitted to hospital managers some 500 reports of what they say are unsafe assignments required of the RNs. Yet hospital officials routinely ignore the problems and fail to fix the problems that are now widespread affecting units throughout the Oakland and Berkeley hospitals, RNs note.

California Nurses Association / NNU
February 14, 2014