Thursday, June 30, 2005

UC Nurses Aren't Buying It

Several dozen nurses picked University of California Irvine (UCI) Medical Center yesterday demanding the revocation of the suspension of four other nurses. The day before the California Nurses Association (CNA) filed a complaint with the state Public Employment Relations Board over the suspensions accusing University of California of, “...unlawfully retaliating against the nurses for their participation in union activities.”

The nurses were handed a weeklong suspension because they refused to cross the picket line of striking hospital workers last April.

The union’s chief negotiator Joe Lindsay told the LA Times that nurses Tam Nguyen, Lilliam Triana, Maureen Berry and Cathryn Montgomery had notified their managers that they would honor the picket lines that day. "We had nurses at other UC facilities and other UC employees from other unions who joined the strike that day, and no one was disciplined except for these four," Lindsay added.

The CNA points out that the nurses who were suspended just happen to be union leaders at UCI.

What else is interesting here is the timing of the suspensions. It seems the suspension was announced Friday, just one day after the CNA called for a statewide vote on a contract offer which the university system said was its final offer. "This is an obvious and outrageous attempt by the university to punish and silence registered nurses for speaking out," said Rose Ann DeMoro, the union's executive director.

Ralph Cygan, UCI's chief executive claims the suspensions are for "insubordination." He said the suspended nurses violated their contract by walking out in sympathy with a strike by another union.

The CNA isn't buying that explanation.

"They've clearly targeted CNA nurse leaders at that facility," Chuck Idelson, spokesman for the CNA told the Orange County Register. He noted that the suspensions occurred one day after the UC strike-vote announcement. "You'd have to be extremely naive to think there was no connection," he said. Idelson said the CNA contract does allow nurses to honor other unions' picket lines.

“This is an obvious and outrageous attempt by the University to punish and silence RNs for speaking out on behalf of their patients and their colleagues in their effort to win a collective bargaining agreement that enhances safe staffing, improves the quality of care, and promotes the retention and recruitment of high quality registered nurses,” said CNA Executive Director Rose Ann DeMoro. “This unlawful, discriminatory behavior by the University will not stand. CNA will not let the University treat its RNs with such high-handed disrespect.”

Negotiations between the UC system and the nurses have been going on for five months. The Times says the main sticking point has been disagreement over nurse-to-patient staffing ratios. The union wants the UC system to commit to one nurse for every five patients under a 1999 law.

However, there are other issues as well including wages and health benefits. "UC nurses across the state are some of the lowest paid nurses in each of their (geographical) areas," CNA's Lindsey said. Lindsey says this is one key factor in the nursing shortage in the UC system. "We've come to agreements on a number of issues, but wages are a key issue," Lindsey told KCRA. UC is refusing to address nurses' pension and health plans in its contract proposal, Lindsey adds. "Nurses are looking for guarantees that the pensions won't be cut, that the health plans won't be cut,'' he said. Sources: KCRA (Sacramento), CBS5 Bay City News Wire, LA Times, Orange County Register, CNA

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