Press releases

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Government Imposes $4 Million Fine on Kaiser for Limiting Patients’ Access to Mental Health Care

$4 Million Fine is Second Largest in DMHC’s History; Action Results from Caregivers’ Complaint to the Agency 

Today, the California Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC) announced a $4 million fine against California’s largest HMO for limiting patients’ access to mental health care. The fine affirms the findings of an exhaustive complaint filed by Kaiser Permanente’s frontline mental health clinicians, who are represented by the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW). In November of 2011, NUHW filed a 34-page complaint with the DMHC and has cooperated with the agency’s ensuing 19-month investigation.

June 25, 2013

Nurses Call on President Obama to Take the Next Step on Climate Change and Fully Reject Keystone XL

The nation’s largest organization of nurses welcomed the call by President Obama today for action on climate change. But the President’s statement on the controversial Keystone XL Pipeline that “our national interest will be served only if this project does not significantly exacerbate the problem of climate change,” does not go far enough, says National Nurses United.

National Nurses United
June 25, 2013

Lack of courage, conviction from Republican Senators shameful for Michigan’s needy

LANSING – Members of the Michigan Nurses Association are livid that over 400,000 of Michigan’s neediest citizens, the majority of which are women and children, will be left without access to health care as a result of the Senate’s refusal to pass the Medicaid expansion program offered as part of the federal Affordable Care Act. “This is callous, heartless behavior,” said Jeff Breslin, RN, MNA president. “From the start of the discussions in the Senate, it’s been shown over and over that money and personal ambitions are clearly taking precedent over a healthier Michigan. When vacations and re-election campaigns and coercion from well-moneyed special interests are controlling how our elected legislators represent the people that voted them into office, it’s a bleak future for our state.”

June 20, 2013

Poison in the Pipeline: The Toxic Risk of Keystone XL

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Independent lab tests of a sample taken from a tar sands oil spill earlier this year in Arkansas detected several highly toxic chemicals, according to a new report by Environmental Working Group commissioned by clean energy advocate and philanthropist Tom Steyer. “A single sample of tar sands oil included chemicals that cause cancer in humans and produce serious and permanent birth defects in children,” said EWG’s director of research, Renée Sharp. “These are the consequences the Obama administration should be weighing first and foremost before it makes its final decision on whether to subject millions of American families to the real risks that could come if the Keystone pipeline is approved.”

Environmental Working Group
June 20, 2013

Colorful March on Golden Gate Bridge Today Highlights Push to Stop Keystone XL Pipeline

New Report on Toxic Chemicals in Arkansas Tar Sands Spill Emphasizes Health Hazards Linked to Controversial KXL Project Say Nurses. SAN FRANCISCO – In one of the most colorful protests yet against the Keystone XL Pipeline project, registered nurses from coast to coast, joined by activists from the nation’s leading environmental groups and other Bay Area activists will march across the Golden Gate Bridge today. The message to the Obama administration – stop the pipeline before it’s too late for our planet and our health. Today’s huge march comes as a new report was released today in Washington identifying seven highly toxic compounds that can cause cancer and developmental problems found in a sample from the March tar sands oil spill near Mayflower, Ark.

National Nurses United
June 20, 2013

St. Joseph RNs Ratify New Contract at Apple Valley, Eureka, and Petaluma

Registered nurses at three St. Joseph Health System (SJHS) medical centers have ratified a new collective bargaining agreement that will strengthen patient care protections and provide affordable healthcare benefits, the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United announced today. Nurses won improved safe RN-to-patient safe staffing ratio language, successfully fought off substantial increases to their healthcare premiums, and secured removal of a punitive “wellness” program that recent studies have concluded fail to provide promised savings while penalizing employees who may have chronic health problems.

National Nurses United
June 19, 2013

Affinity RNs Call for Halt to Flawed Electronic Medical Records System Scheduled to Go Live Friday

Affinity Medical Center RNs in Massillon, Ohio are calling on hospital officials to delay the planned June 21 implementation of the Cerner electronic medical records (EMR) system, until the hospital bargains with the nurses and proceeds in a safe manner. The direct-care RNs, represented by the National Nurses Organizing Committee (NNOC) in Ohio, an affiliate of National Nurses United (NNU), say that nurses, the primary users of the complex system, have had insufficient training, which will put patients at risk.

National Nurses United
June 18, 2013

St. Louis University Hospital RNs Win First Contract

ST. LOUIS –Registered nurses at Saint Louis University Hospital (SLUH) have won their first ever collective bargaining agreement with a new three year contract that provides for significant improvements in patient care protections, compensation, and job protections.

NNOC-Missouri
June 17, 2013

Nurses to Host Golden Gate Bridge March June 20 - Call to Stop Keystone XL Pipeline, Austerity

SAN FRANCISCO – Registered nurses from across the U.S., joined by environmental and Bay Area community activists, will step up the call on the Obama administration to reject approval of the controversial Keystone XL Pipeline with a colorful march and rally at the Golden Gate Bridge Thursday, June 20.

June 14, 2013

Resounding Call for Hospital Safety; Pass Patient Protection Act, Say Nurses and Community Leaders

WASHINGTON, DC – A gathering of 130 registered nurses and District of Columbia community leaders and residents joined together in the Wilson Building Thursday to express strong support for the Patient Protection Act of 2013. The Act would set specific limits on the number of patients for which registered nurses can safely provide care.

June 14, 2013