News | National Nurses United

Petaluma hospital nurses OK labor contract

Nurses at Petaluma Valley Hospital represented by the California Nurses Association have approved a labor agreement with St. Joseph Health, which runs the hospital, the union said. The deal gives nurses pay raises of 2 percent a year for three years but also reduces their stand-by pay, a St. Joseph's official said. The CNA represents about about 170 nurses at Petaluma Valley Hospital. The union contract also was approved by more than 900 union nurses at two other St. Joseph hospitals, St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka and St. Mary Medical Center in Apple Valley. —Santa Rosa Press Democrat, 06/20/13 More »

California News

St. Mary nurses ratify labor agreement

APPLE VALLEY • After more than six months of negotiations, registered nurses at St. Joseph, St. Mary ratified a new collective bargaining agreement Wednesday, according to a news release from the California Nurses Association and National Nurses United. Local nurses joined others at the Eureka and Petaluma locations in the St. Joseph Health system in ratifying the deal after a preliminary agreement was reached earlier this month. “We are extremely pleased that the bargaining teams for the CNA union and our hospital have reached agreement on a new contract with our valued nurses,” said St. Joseph Health, St. Mary spokesman Randy Bevilacqua in a written statement after the preliminary deal. “As always, the focus of our clinical teams continues to be on providing high-quality, safe, compassionate care and service to our patients at all times.” —Daily Press, 06/19/13 More »

California News

Affinity nurses seek delay on electronic records

MASSILLON — Affinity Medical Center registered nurses are asking hospital officials to delay a new electronic health record system set to begin this weekend. —CantonRep.com, 06/18/13 More »

Ohio News

This Week In America, June 14, 2013

More profits and less healthcare. In some corners of the newsroom the central story of America’s healthcare crisis – profiteering – finally has been discovered. Steve Brill in Time magazine took it on earlier this year and several have followed suit. At $2.7 trillion, the annual U.S. healthcare price tag is the biggest in the world, by far, an indication that there are vast riches reaching investors in the business of illness. There is evidence, as well, that those profits remain prodigious even as increasing numbers of sick Americans forego care. —National Nurses United, 06/14/13 More »

This Week in America News

Quincy Medical Center nurses reach deal with hospital owner Steward

Nurses at Quincy Medical Center have reached a one-year agreement on wages and staffing with Steward Health Care. In a joint press release, Steward officials and the leadership of the Massachusetts Nurses Association/National Nurses United said the agreement affirms their mutual commitment to the hospital’s viability and staffing levels that assure quality patient care. —PatriotLedger.com, 06/13/13 More »

Massachusetts News

Massachusetts Department of Public Health says Morton Hospital’s Pediatric unit is essential

After hearing, the state Department of Public Health has weighed in on Morton Hospital’s plan to close its pediatric unit, calling the pediatric services “essential” for the community. —Taunton Gazette, 06/11/13 More »

Massachusetts News

Unit at Morton Hospital essential, state says

Hospital’s pediatric unit, slated to close next month, provides critical access to health care for children in the Taunton region, according to a strongly worded state finding that, though not binding, is meant to pressure the hospital to reconsider. More »

Massachusetts News

Sutter Health patient information turns up in drug bust

When Alameda County sheriff’s deputies conducted a drug bust in Oakland on May 16, they found drugs, but a search turned up something else, too: personal information on about 4,500 Sutter Health patients. It’s unclear how the information got there, but it may have come from Sutter hospitals, including Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Berkeley and Oakland, Sutter Delta Medical Center in Antioch and Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley, according to a letter to patients from David Bradley, president of Sutter’s East Bay Region. —Sacramento Business Journal, 06/10/13 More »

California News

Stop Austerity, Stop Keystone: Our Planet, Our Health

Keystone represents the false choices of the austerity era. Jobs VS the planet. Economic recovery VS healthy communities. Our money or our lives. The Robin Hood Tax will heal our environment AND our economy. March across the Golden Gate Bridge with 350.org, 350BayArea.org, National Nurses United, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, Sierra Club, Sierra Club SF Bay Chapter, CREDO, Food and Water Watch, Asian Pacific Environmental Network, EQUAL Health Network, California League of Conservation Voters, Center for Biological Diversity, Keystone XL Action Council, UNITE HERE! Local 2850, Movement Generation, Bay Localize, Citizens Climate Lobby, Sustainable San Rafael, Global Exchange, and other environment and public health advocates to send this message to Wall Street and Washington, DC. Tax Wall Street to heal the environment —National Nurses United, 06/10/13 More »

California News

This Week In America, June 7, 2013

Wall Street Buying Main Street. First, they prize an economy with low wages and keep wages low for generations. Then they offer mortgages to families whose earnings would never afford them the opportunity to save and buy homes within their budgets. Next, they switch the bait and raise interest rates on the mortgage payments beyond what workers’ wages can meet. Defaults ensue and families are evicted—by the millions. —National Nurses United, 06/07/13 More »

This Week in America News

On the Wings of a Nightingale

Today I ran into a Mexican restaurant to grab a quick lunch, and as I ate my meal I came across a table of nurses wearing hospital scrubs. As they chatted amongst themselves I thought about the many nurses my family has interacted with over the last five years, and I found myself filled with such appreciation for what these amazing women and men do for us. —The Huffington Post Blog, 06/07/13 More »

News

Nurses Reach Tentative Agreements at St. Joseph Hospitals in Apple Valley, Eureka and Petaluma

Registered nurses at three St. Joseph Health System (SJHS) medical centers have achieved a tentative settlement with hospital officials on a new collective bargaining agreement that nurses say will bring significant improvements in patient care protections and healthcare security for nurses. The agreement between nurse and hospital negotiators, reached late Wednesday night, must still be ratified by the RNs who will vote on the proposals in membership meetings expected to be held next week. For more information, you can read the press release and news articles collected here. —Multiple Sources, 06/07/13 More »

California News

Nurses reach tentative labor agreement

Registered nurses reached a tentative labor deal with St. Joseph Health, St. Mary, according to a news release from the California Nurses Association on Thursday. RNs say the new collective bargaining agreement will protect RN-to-patient ratios in the Apple Valley hospital while also preventing increases in the cost of nurses’ health care coverage. “We made major improvements to our contract and gave nurses the tools to advocate for their practice and their patients,” said Ron Herron, a critical care RN at St. Mary, in a prepared statement. “We maintained affordable health care benefits which are critical to attracting nurses to our growing community hospital.” —Victorville Daily Press, 06/07/13 More »

California News

St. Joseph nurses reach tentative collective bargaining agreement

Registered nurses at St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka, along with nurses from St. Joseph Health System medical centers in Apple Valley and Petaluma, announced on Thursday a tentative settlement with hospital officials on a new collective bargaining agreement. Susan Johnson, a registered nurse in St. Joseph's labor and delivery unit, said, in a press release from the California Nurses Association, that language improvements under the new agreement will create safer staffing conditions for both nurses and patients. —Eureka Times Standard, 06/07/13 More »

California News

RNs reach tentative deal with Petaluma Valley Hospital

PETALUMA — Registered nurses at Petaluma Valley Hospital and two other St. Joseph Health–affiliated facilities today reached a tentative accord with hospital officials on a new collective bargaining agreement, the California Nurses Association said. The Oakland-based nurses’ union, an affiliate of National Nurses United, said the agreement “will bring significant improvements in patient care protections and health care security for nurses.” —North Bay Business Journal, 06/07/13 More »

California News

Petaluma hospital nurses reach tentative contract agreement

The California Nurses Association, which represents about 170 nurses at Petaluma Valley Hospital, announced a tentative agreement Thursday with St. Joseph Health, which runs the hospital. CNA negotiators representing more than 900 union nurses at two other St. Joseph hospitals, St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka and St. Mary Medical Center in Apple Valley, also reached tentative labor agreements. Nurses are expected to vote next week on whether or not to ratify the three-year agreement. —Santa Rosa Press Democrat, 06/07/13 More »

California News

A RAND Report on “Workplace Wellness” Is Quietly Buried for Five Months—Why?

Did you know that in the U.S. “Workplace Wellness” has become a $6 billion industry? That’s how much employers pay vendors who sell workplace wellness programs designed to encourage employees to lose weight, lower their cholesterol, or stop smoking.. Today, firms lay out an average of $521 per employee per year on ‘wellness incentives’ such as gift cards for employees who shed pounds. That is more than double the $260 they spent in 2009 according to a recent survey by Fidelity Investments and the National Business Group on Health. —Health Beat, 06/05/13 More »

News

Social Security should be expanded, not cut

Fear-mongers and other critics of Social Security were silenced — momentarily — by the release last week of the annual trustees' report for the programs. The report showed not only that it's looking pretty good in the near term, but in the long term it's more important to the sustenance of millions of Americans than ever before. But policymakers and pundits have taken the wrong lesson from these findings. The argument they most often put forward is that Social Security is so important it must be "saved," typically by cutting benefits to bring its outflow in line with its income. —LA Times, 06/05/13 More »

News

Rough sailing ahead for health care reform, but it’s not our only option

You know another storm is brewing when Washington politicians start looking for somebody else to blame for problems they themselves created. That’s what happened recently at a Senate budget hearing when Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus unloaded on Kathleen Sebelius, President Barack Obama’s health and human services secretary. He berated her for failing to adequately educate the public or competently implement the 2,000-plus page Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. During the hearing, Baucus worried aloudabout “a huge train wreck coming down” if the Obama administration didn’t clean up its act. Other Democrats soon piled on. —The Bangor Daily News, 06/04/13 More »

Maine News

This Week In America, June 3, 2013

Austerity is a Killer. Estimates put the number of additional suicides at 10,000 and up to a million extra cases of depression across Europe and the U.S. since austerity measures were imposed after the financial collapse of 2008. These findings were highlighted in a new book, The Body Economic: Why Austerity Kills, authored by economist David Stuckler and physician Sanjay Basu, and the subject of an interview on Democracy Now! —Weekly News, 06/03/13 More »

This Week in America News