CNA Supporters: Let’s VOTE or declare a loss at Huntington Hospital

After almost a year and a half of waiting, we finally had had an election scheduled for 9/28 and 9/29. Since CNA apparently thinks they are going to lose, they are now doing their usual delaying tactics and filing ULPs. The first one last Friday was about the “illegal and mandatory” labor classes the hospital has made available. These are actually non-mandatory, and legal Labor Information classes. As one of my colleagues said, apparently the nurses who support the CNA don’t listen to One Minute Overview where they say “it’s not mandatory but let us know if you are interested.”

The second one, delivered today- was that the managers, directors and executive team are “Soliciting concerns.” Sounds like good business practices to me. Seriously- why are you complaining about this? You complained that administrators were not listening to us and now you complain that they are listening to us. Make up your mind about what it is that you want.

Support for the hospital is excellent. Many realize the excellent benefits we have here. Much better than the most CNA hospitals. And we are not paying $1500/year in dues, as a friend who works at a local CNA hospital told me is the case. We’ve hired over 400 new nurses since last year and most of those are thrilled to be working at Huntington.

Have you noticed the CNA supporters sneaking around the hospital lately? Why do they have to sneak around? Why don’t they like it when we tell them to get off our units because we are trying to work. Why do they think we are going to listen to them now?

screen-shot-2016-09-12-at-8-29-56-pm

Does CNA know they will lose a repeat election? I think so. I think that’s what all this is about. Even previous supporters have told them that they are weak. They lost last time by 100 votes (and 175 challenge votes). It will be closer to 500 now even if they still challenge everyone they challenged last time.

Let’s VOTE!!! Let’s Vote today! I demand a vote! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CNA LOSES AGAIN!

CNA had another big loss tonight.

Nurses at St Jude Hospital in Orange County voted to KEEP their voices and their money and shut down the CNA.

The final tally:

St. Jude RNs 387                   CNA 276                A win for St. Jude nurses by 111 votes!

Congratulations to St. Jude RNs!! We are thrilled for you and for all RNs.

 

 

Get Ready- We Are Voting Again! But it’s a Good Thing.

It’s been a long time. Almost a year. At least CNA hasn’t been around much, spreading their lies and hatred and bullying people for disagreeing with them. They lurk in the parking lot, stalking pro  hospital RNs, especially the outspoken ones. One of our nurses recently had screws driven into all four of her tires. Same question as when someone left dried out dog (?) poop on the chair in my office. Really? You want to be associated with people who will do stuff like this?

If you have not heard yet- we are going to vote again. We don’t yet have a date.

I don’t have all of the details but I would guess it went something like this:

CNA: If you reinstate the two nurses who got terminated, we will withdraw our objections to the vote.

Our People: Heck no! They claimed to care about patient safety, and got caught red handed doing something that violates basic patient safety principles.  Perhaps because they think they are so perfect they never make mistakes. Then they deny doing it. Then CNA says that they say “Well, we only did it it because everyone does it.” Forget it. We are not about to reinstate them. We’ll let our nurses vote again.

And we will vote again. Same group as last time. If you got challenged last time, expect to be challenged again.

WE WILL WIN AGAIN, by an even greater margin this time.

Go iStand!

Go Away Loser CNA.

 

 

Mission Nurses Who Care

An inspiring video by the Nurses at Mission Hospital who oppose representation by a union. It applies to our situation too. Well done Mission Nurses!

CNA, One Day Strikes and Your Paycheck (Missing more than one day’s pay, for sure)

4/27/15 EDIT: We are in receipt of an email from the hospital whose CNA strike notice is below. The registries and strike staffers are bargaining hard these days. They required a five day contract from this hospital. How many days are you working between 5/1 and 5/5? That’s how many days pay you would go without if this was happening at OUR hospital. You can’t work and you can’t take PTO. If you were working 3 of the 5 days, you would be out 3 days of pay!!! That’s half of your paycheck, potentially. And if you are a single income family, that could be tough.

CNA likes to say that they don’t strike very often. Yet the beginning of May (Nurses Week) is filled with plans to strike at eight hospitals around California including Little Company of Mary (see announcement below) and Henry Mayo. One of the RNs from Henry Mayo showed us her letter telling her that if she crossed the picket line and went to work anyway she would be fined an amount equivalent to one day’s pay. So if CNA is telling you you won’t be fined for crossing the picket line, that is not the truth.

CNA has no strike fund (see their tax forms called LM-2s, at truthaboutcna.com), where worker’s would be paid while striking because they only schedule one day strikes. Strike pay is typically paid if the strike lasts longer than 3 days). You cannot shut off patient care the way you can shut off commerce like the dock workers did at ports up and down the west coast. So hospitals are forced to hire temporary workers to replace the RNs striking. And the registers contracting with the hospital for temporary workers typically require a 3-5 day contract.

The funny thing is one of our CNA supporting nurses went and worked as a scab at a CNA strike in the bay area. She traded days with other nurses so she would be free to go do this. She was paid $3000 for a one day orientation and 2 days of patient care. Really?

So here is my question: Is this us? Is this why we are at Huntington? Is this why we became nurses? Because I don’t get it.

Little Company of Mary to Strike 5-9-15

VICTORY!

Untitled

We did it! We defeated the CNA!  You are all AMAZING! 

Preliminary Final vote count: 539 Huntington/ 444 CNA.

Without the challenge votes we got 56% of the vote. If we conservatively assume the challenge votes would be 90% pro Huntington that gives the proHuntington voters a victory with 71% of the vote. 

We took an early lead and maintained through the count. 

The only people union-busting were the iStand nurses and other hospital employees who don’t want anything to do with CNA. We did it everyone! We shut down CNA’s takeover of our hospital! 

Congratulations and THANK YOU to the all of RNs and other hospital staff who made this possible!

Voting “Yes I Want the CNA?” Read This

This is for the RNs who are honest and hardworking and who really care about their patients.

Look at what happened at the San Francisco area Sutter during two years of contract negotiations.

NINE strikes by CNA, including one on Christmas Eve and one on another holiday and three within a 60 day period. Look it up. http://healthcarelaborwatch.org/cna-agrees-to-new-contract-with-sutter-after-9-strikes/

Some points to consider here

  1. Striking on Christmas Eve. Are you willing to do this to your patients as well as your family? Stand outside the hospital with signs on Christmas Eve? When you could be home with your family?  I’m talking to those of you who are honest and hardworking and think you will have a better environment with the CNA than you do now.
  2. Are you willing to lose three days pay for a one day strike?
    • Since staffing agencies require 3 day contracts hospitals replace you for three days, you don’t will not be allowed to work for 3 days.
    • You can’t take PTO. CNA never pays strike benefits because those are only paid when a strike is longer than 3 days and CNA only calls 1 or 2 day strikes. Look it up. http://truthaboutcna.com/cna-finances.html (need to find the section called strike benefits- it is zero year after year. CNA has NO money in it’s strike fund).
    • In 60 days, you would be out nine days of pay. That is 1.5 paychecks. Can you afford that?
    • On top of that, if you go on strike the hospital is allowed to permanently replace you. Well, that’s one way to get rid of bad apples, but you are not a bad apple, are you? So you might have a job to come back to or you might not.
  3. Planning to not be a member of the union so you can cross strike lines? 
    • You will still pay dues for the amount that CNA calls “bargaining costs.” That’s over 90% of the $140 a month or $126 a month.
  4. Dues:
    • It’s true. You don’t pay dues until there is a contract. The first time.
    • If the contract expires and it takes two years to renegotiate like it did Sutter, you still pay dues during that two years, but you get no raises.
  5. Raises: At Sutter the union settled for raises of “up to 6% over two years.” Right now you can get a raise of up to 7% over two years at Huntington. That also sounds a lot like a merit increase, which is not something the lazy nurses who are CNA supporters say they want. But you do, right? Because YOU are hardworking and honest and actually really care about your patients and your evaluation reflects that, right?  
  6. Ostracized: This is what has happened on many units to the people who have made it known that they will vote no. So if you plan to change your vote, keep it quiet if you want help pulling up your patients in bed or help to turn them. It is completely shameful that some of our nurses have chosen to act in this manner towards nurses who have voiced the opinion that we do not need a union. I had a nurse talk to me in tears the other day as she related the cold shoulder she gets from everyone on her shift. How is this professional or in the best interests of our patients? You, the conscientious, honest and hard working professional have not done this. Did you know this was happening? This is a picture of what we will become if we vote in the union.

One final word of caution. If you ask the CNA these questions they will tell you half truths and lies. Look up what I’ve said on your own. Look anywhere but on the CNA website. The truth is out there. It’s not too late to look it up. Do this before you vote. Do this because it matters that you have all of the information before you check yes or no. 

CNA Supporters- It’s getting to the Point Where Many of You Need to Say “No Way”

Nurses Who Support  CNA- Is this Something You Would Do?

I know many of you to be honorable people. Excellent nurses. I have difficulty reconciling the fact that you have chosen to associate yourselves with an organization that engages in vandalism and routinely lies, cheats or steals.

A scene from the cafeteria the other day:

CNA employee walks in to the food area, takes a fistful of clear containers (like the ones for salad) and walks out with them. The cashier looked at him and he stared right at her as if challenging her to say something. Really? They didn’t give you enough containers at Jersey Mikes and you have to steal them from the hospital? How is that ok?

The next day, the CNA employee walks in, takes 3 bottles of water and walks out. Without paying. Again? Really? Now, neither of these items are high value items, but would you do that? I know many of you would never do that. Like I said, you are honorable people.

CNA has routinely vandalized our campus. Why? So they can sneak in after hours to bring you “Taco Tuesday” or pizza or some other food to convince you to listen to them.

Why are you choosing to associate yourselves with a for-profit corporation that does things like this? Why? I don’t get it. Maybe one of you will explain it to me someday.

CNA Supporters- Pay Attention or So… for you, it’s “Sort of About the Money”

CNA will want to BURN this post. Why? Because it exposes the truth about the Keck contract.

Are you an excellent employee who always gets close to the maximum raise?

Do you want to get the same raise year after year as the laziest nurse on your unit?

Did you know the Keck contract that CNA keeps waving at you agreed to only 2% per year for their RNs- regardless of your performance? Don’t believe me? Check out the salary grid below. Some unintentionally helpful CNA supporting person left it laying around. An iStand nurse happened to pick it up.

The Keck contract is straight time for 12 hours. You need to convert your HH rate of pay to “compare apples to apples”, That’s the number you need to compare to the rates in the Keck contract. Here’s how you calculate that rate:

(8 hours x your rate) + (4 hours x 1.5 overtime) x your rate /12 = your real salary/hour.

Example for New Grad: (8x $31.50) + (4 x 1.5) x $31.50/ 12 = $36.75

Example for $39.00/hour: (8x $39) + (4 x 1.5) x $39/ 12 = $45.50

Example for $43.00/hour:  (8 hours x $43) + (4  x1.5) x $43) /12 =$50.17

Example for $48.00/hour: (8x $48) + (4 x 1.5) x $48 / 12 = $56.00

An easier calculation is to multiply your current salary by 14 and then divide that number by 12. Like this:

$48 x 14= $672 / 12= $56.00

$52 x 14 = $728/12 = $60.67 

Right now people at the top of the HH RN range earn almost as much as Keck top of the scale with no union dues (If you are full time 12 hour shifts, it works out to about a dollar an hour at $140/month). And that’s with great insurance,  great 403b contributions, etc. Do you really want to give that all up so that CNA can run around talking about how they got Huntington Nurses a $8 raise? You know we will lose our overtime. Is it worth it? 

Here is the Keck grid, with it’s pathetic 2% per year raise:

Screen Shot 2015-04-02 at 8.44.02 PM

What We Might Lose if We Bring in CNA Incorporated

CNA is a corporation. Their business is convincing you to vote them in so you can pay them dues. We have a lot to lose though, and I think we need to be aware of the risks. Even the NLRB says that “collective bargaining is potentially hazardous for the employee… and they might end up with less benefits.”

First off, our checks will most likely be smaller:

Analysis of earnings now and with a union revised on 3-28-15

Other things to lose:

  • Overtime
  • Matching contributions to our 403b plans
  • Some PTO and EIR
  • Bereavement Leave
  • Free parking
  • PPO insurance mostly paid by the hospital. When CNA negotiated Keck’s latest contract, Keck got switched to an HMO plan, and if the Keck employees are hospitalized at Keck or anywhere else they have to pay 20% of the bill. A co-worker’s 5 week hospital stay, for which the bill was   1 million dollars cost her nothing at Huntington. $0.00. Zero. As an employee of Keck it would have cost her $200,000.  Another co-workers hospital stay (2 days) was $25,000. As a Keck employee she would have been responsible for $5000, but as a Huntington employee it cost her nothing.
  • We could see our copays go up dramatically.
  • We might lose our primary care doctors because most of us see physicians who don’t take HMO insurance. The above might not seem like a big deal when you are young and relatively healthy. Even the youngest, healthiest employees among us can be injured on a hike, a walk around the block or even walking down the stairs in our very own house.
  • Discounted food in the cafeteria or increases in prices of the food there.

The labor union corporations need nurses to support the other unions. Membership in other unions has decreased dramatically in other states as they become “Right to Work” states. This means there cannot be compulsory union member ship as a requirement to hold a job. They talk us into it by promising huge raises. CNA contributed almost $5 million dollars to political candidates last year. They “loaned” 5 million to NUHW. They made a $20 million profit. If they are voted in at Huntington, we will pay them almost $2 million a year in dues.

In Gloria Sanchez-Rico, we have a leader who is visionary and passionate about nursing. Let’s see where she takes us. Give her a chance to show what we can do together. Without a third party corporation that doesn’t really care about patient safety, or patients or even the nurses they say they represent. 

I stand with Huntington Hospital, our patients, our leaders and our employees. Please show up on April 15th or 16th to vote no. If you need a ride, let us know. We will organize car pools for  employees who are not working those days. Email huntingtonnurse@gmail.com.

#iStandwithHuntington  #voteNOcna