April 26, 2015 / Jennifer, CNS / 0 Comments
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
April 16, 2015 / Jennifer, CNS / 0 Comments
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!
April 12, 2015 / Jennifer, CNS / 0 Comments
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
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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?
- 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.
April 11, 2015 / Jennifer, CNS / 0 Comments
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.
April 2, 2015 / Jennifer, CNS / 1 Comment
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:
