CNA press releases

Submitted by ADonahue on

RNs to Protest Appointment of Kaiser CEO Halvorson to First 5 CA Children’s Commission

Decision to close vital Hayward pediatric unit shows his inability to act in best interests of children. Registered nurses from throughout Kaiser Permanente will protest the appointment of Kaiser CEO George Halvorson to the First 5 California Children and Families Commission in the public comment period of the Commission’s meeting Thursday, the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United announced today. The nurses cite the controversial decision by Halvorson to close the pediatrics unit at Kaiser Hayward for children in need of hospitalization as one example of his unworthiness to safeguard the welfare of the state’s young population. The unit serves more than 1,000 families a year and covers 100,000 children in the Tri-City area who receive healthcare from Kaiser Permanente.

July 25, 2013

RNs, Caregivers Blast Priorities at Palomar Health District

Registered Nurses and other caregivers have taken a vote of “no confidence” in the management of the Palomar and Pomerado hospitals and are calling on the Palomar Health District to act immediately to change course from a path of closures and cuts while giving huge cash and contract awards to chief executive officer Michael Covert and other executives. In just concluded voting by 1,345 hospital employees, 94 percent of Palomar Health RNs and ancillary workers said they have no confidence or trust in the district’s executive leadership, 96 percent said the district had exhibited poor fiscal responsibility, 95 percent said the executive leadership had failed to share the financial pain inflicted on other employees, and 90 percent pledged to take a more active role in fighting to save the district “for our patients, our community and our families.”

California Nurses Association
July 18, 2013

Berkeley City Council Endorses Call to Hold Sutter Alta Bates Accountable on Charity Care

City’s Second Largest Employer a Tax Drain on Community. The Berkeley, CA. City Council Tuesday night voted nearly unanimously to call on the city’s second largest employer, Sutter’s Alta Bates Summit Medical Center to fulfill its charity care obligation in exchange for the substantial public financing they receive through their tax exempt status. Alta Bates Summit with two campuses in Berkeley, is seen as a prime example of a hospital that receives government subsidies as a result of its tax-exempt status that are far beyond what it provides in charity care – a growing problem throughout California.

California Nurses Association
July 17, 2013

Sutter’s New Electronic System Causes Serious Disruptions to Safe Patient Care at E. Bay Hospitals

Introduction of a new electronic medical records system at Sutter corporation East Bay hospitals has produced multiple problems with safe care delivery that has put patients at risk, charged the California Nurses Association today. Problems with technology are not unique to health care – pilots of the ill fated Asiana airline that tragically crashed at San Francisco International Airport July 6 told federal investigators that an automatic throttle failed to keep the jetliner at the proper speed for landing, the Los Angeles Times reported July 9.

California Nurses Association
July 11, 2013

CHEU Caregivers Union

Children's Hospital RNs, Caregivers Join Together to Protest Drastic Cuts in Healthcare Tuesday

OAKLAND- Children's Hospital and Research Center registered nurses and caregivers will support their coworkers, represented by the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW), in an informational picket Tuesday.

July 1, 2013

Children’s Hospital RNs, Caregivers Join Together to Protest Drastic Cuts in Healthcare Tuesday

OAKLAND- Children's Hospital and Research Center registered nurses and caregivers will support their coworkers, represented by the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW), in an informational picket Tuesday. Key issues prompting the protest include severe cuts in healthcare for workers and their families, maintaining the rights of all unions to support one another in contract negotiations, and opposition to a "management’s rights” clause which will significantly decrease workers' collective rights and voice in advocating for safe patient care.

July 1, 2013

Federal Board Indicts Sutter Vallejo for Illegal Imposition of Higher Healthcare Costs to Nurses

The National Labor Relations Board has ordered Sutter Solano Medical Center in Vallejo to stand trial in September on charges that it violated federal law in imposing higher healthcare costs on its registered nurses and illegally imposing discipline on RNs in retaliation for their participation in a strike last year. In a complaint issued Tuesday, Joseph Frankl, regional director of the NLRB San Francisco region, set a September 9 trial date in San Francisco on the charges over its illegal actions against the nurses.

California Nurses Association
June 26, 2013

Federal Court Sanctions Barstow Hospital for Failing­­ to Bargain With RNs...

A U.S. District Judge in Los Angeles Monday issued a federal injunction against Barstow Hospital, ordering it to cease and desist its flagrant violations of the collective bargaining rights of its registered nurses. Judge Christina Snyder issued the order in response to a complaint filed by the National Labor Relations Board following charges by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United that Barstow has repeatedly and systematically broken federal law with its refusal to hold contract talks and other abridgements of the RNs’ legal and democratic rights.

California Nurses Association/NNU
June 26, 2013

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

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