California – Nurses Gain a Voice for Quality Patient Care

Riverside, California

Some 260 RNs at Parkview Community Hospital Medical Center overcame employer intimidation in February by voting overwhelmingly to join United Nurses Associations of California/UHCP/NUHHCE (UNAC), an AFSCME affiliate.

“Being in a union is going to help build Parkview into a better hospital,” says ER nurse Don Griffin. “Now we have the support we need to make life better for ourselves and our patients.”

With UNAC, which represents more than 15,000 nurses and other health care professionals throughout California, the RNs will have a say in how they reach their goal of providing consistent, excellent health care for their patients.

UNAC Pres. Kathy Sackman, RN (and an International vice president), explains that nurses know best what their patients need.

The newly organized RNs plan to raise issues with hospital administrators at the bargaining table that include fair working conditions such as scheduling and floating.

The road to victory, which began last summer, was marked by employer harassment that prompted UNAC to file a charge with the National Labor Relations Board on behalf of Neonatal Intensive Care Unit RN Deirdre Kirkwood. She was fired in early January for her efforts to join UNAC.

Kirkwood's case prompted U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) to call on Parkview administrators, in a letter, to “allow the nurses to hold a fair union election process, free from intimidation and harassment.”

Sweet Victory — Some of the 260 RNs at Parkview Community Hospital Medical Center in Riverside, Calif., celebrate their overwhelming vote to join UNAC. Photo Credit: Eve Rojas