St. Luke's/California Campus CNA Leaders Ask CPMC Board to Support Them in Their Contract Fight

Dear CPMC Board Member
February 20th, 2008

After months of negotiations we continue to remain far apart on contract settlement because of the refusal of the management team to compromise on their final offer that nurses have to reject. Nurses have helped CPMC rank in the top percentiles for patient care and satisfaction because of the outstanding care we provide to our patients, while often sacrificing our own health and safety. Below is a summary of our proposals, many of which are standard for CNA union contracts.

1) Staffing (Model of Care):

Adequate meal and rest coverage according to state law. Nurses should not constantly have to choose between providing adequate care to our patients or taking our legally-mandated breaks.

Charge nurses without patient assignments. Each patient deserves the undivided attention of the nurse assigned to her and not a charge nurse who has many other responsibilities, such as assisting with sicker patients, assisting families in the stressful times, staffing, and ongoing paper work.

Admit nurse. With our current staffing mix it is often difficult to absorb another patient safely.

Lift teams. Lift teams should be available at all times, not just weekdays from 9-5pm. We need to reduce the rate of nurse back injuries which outranks all workers compensation cases at CPMC. Nurses are not always able to follow MDs orders to get a patient out of bed.

2) St Luke’s RNs:

An equitable merger for St Luke’s. The management team has chosen to implement the merger with steep takeaways to St Luke’s nurses while not providing many of the benefits given to the other CPMC nurses. This has delivered the message, unmistakably, that St Luke’s nurses are not as valuable because they care for poorer patients than CPMC typically treats. Nurses from St Luke’s are worried about loss of jobs through erosion of acute care services.

3) Retirement and Retiree Health:

If we accept the final offer it means there would be no enhancement to our pension or retiree health care for at least seven years. We spend our entire careers taking care of patients from the community so we deserve to have retirement with dignity. CPMC, as the most profitable Sutter hospital, has no excuse for providing the most inferior retiree health benefits of all the Sutters currently negotiating with CNA.

4) Healthcare:

We want our health benefits protected from unilateral changes during the life of the contract.

5) Union Protection:

We want to maintain our union representation which we have had for over sixty years. This means protection from reclassification to supervisor under the NLRB ruling known as Kentucky River, and protection of union rights in the event of a move to a new location such as Cathedral Hill.

The management team proposed we waive the San Francisco Paid Medical Leave Act which would adversely affect benefited and non benefited nurses alike, making us the only hospital in San Francisco to waive this city ordinance.

We call upon you, as a CPMC Board member, to make a public statement supporting the nurses’ fight for a fair contract.

Sincerely,

Susan Blaschak RN, Recovery Room; Jonica Brooks RN, Post Acute; Suzie Curtiss RN, PACU; Mary Michelucci RN, PICC Nurse; Eileen Prendiville RN, NICU; Jane Sandoval RN, ER; Barbara Savitz RN, L&D

---------
Emphasis is added by blogger for visual readibility. This letter is signed by the St. Luke's/California campus joint CNA negotiating team. CPMC's other campuses are non-union]