Private sector nurses join forces for safe staffing and respect

Patients before profits

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Private sector nurses from more than a dozen hospitals across New York City held their first-ever bargaining conference on Dec. 5. The purpose: to prepare for the tough contract fights ahead, to discuss the issues that concern us, and to plan our strategy to win in 2014.

Nurses agree: Our central concerns – safe staffing and maintaining the integrity of our nursing practice and our role as patient advocates – cross hospital boundaries. We’re developing a comprehensive contract campaign (see below) to forge a new approach to negotiations that draws on our collective strength. And we’re already out front, raising our voice and demanding that patients come before profits, always.

The ABC’s of a comprehensive contract campaign

ACTIVATE members because there’s nothing like sending a strong, united message — in the streets, through petitions, in meetings, and at every bargaining table — to get management’s ear.

BUILD strong alliances with other healthcare unions (like 1199), patients, clergy, community groups, and elected officials to present a united front for quality patient care.

COORDINATE bargaining across all voluntary hospitals. Confronting hospitals together, united around safe staffing and speaking with one voice, gives us the strength to win strong contracts everywhere.

UNITY IN ACTION

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NYSNA and 1199 have launched the Campaign for Quality Care at New York Presbyterian to protect our patients and fight corporate greed. Our first campaign rally on Dec. 5 brought together 500 RNs and caregivers, and a surprise visit from Danny Glover, to celebrate our historic alliance. “We are the patients’ advocates. And we will not stand divided any more: not from our patients, not from members of other unions, not from the broader community,” NYSNA President Judy Sheridan-Gonzalez, RN, told the cheering crowd of red and purple.

WE ARE NYSNA

“We’re tired of being bullied by management, of having our practice diminished, and of our patients being shortchanged,” said Karine Raymond, RN, NYSNA board member and president of the local bargaining unit at Montefiore’s Einstein Division. Nurses at the Moses and Einstein Divisions held simultaneous actions, dramatizing the issues that incense them most: short staffing and patients relegated to the hallways for care. “More and more nurses are becoming active,” says Karine, “and understanding that collectively we are NYSNA and by acting together we can solve problems.”

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THE SAFE STAFFING CRISIS

looms across the state. In recent weeks, RNs at Nyack Hospital and St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Yonkers picketed in front of their hospitals, calling for guaranteed minimum staffing levels to protect quality care for their patients.