Petaluma Staff Nurse Partnership
Thank You to everyone who came out for the rally on Friday! We had a great time for a great cause. Overall we had 70 plus employees that came out and many friends/community members/pets joined in as well. The radio broadcast on Inside Petaluma went well with lots of good feedback. The Argus covered the action and Mayor Barrett and City Council member Dennis Pocekay lended their support. Our friends and coworkers from NUHW and SNA walked the picket line with us as we all focus on safer staffing. Overall it was a really great day and we are sure Kitty Brown, whose life and legacy we celebrated on Friday would have been proud. We will keep you all updated on next steps. Thanks again!
The first thing that needs to be said is that a Union is only as strong as its ability of its members to stand united and fight for a common cause. The second thing that needs to be said is that no one will fight harder for you than you.
There are multiple wrongs the Hospital has committed that your help is critical in righting and one or more of them either directly or indirectly effects all of us. A couple of them, like the Dialysis issue and the Hospital's use of our PTO and the cancelling of shifts has the potential to have long lasting negative effects on us if the Hospital were to prevail.
May 13th is an "all hands-on deck" day, and we are asking all of you who can possibly participate to do so. Bring family, friends, pets if you wish and LET'S MAKE SOME NOISE!
Providence made a deal with Nurses planning to retire in the next couple of years and now they are trying to back out of that agreement and stiff these Nurses who have given so much to all of us. It is SO wrong and these amazing, dedicated friends and colleagues of ours need our help!
Providence refuses to put needed safety nets surrounding Dialysis delivery into writing and the potential for negative, even deadly outcomes rests in our ability to ensure these safety nets are memorialized. We are talking about protecting lives and livelihoods here folks as you as the bedside Nurse will potentially be held responsible for any negative outcomes that stem from a botched dialysis session.
Providence took from Nurses PTO accounts without consent and cancelled Nurses shifts outside the contractual allowances during Covid which has had a direct effect on Nurses incomes and their ability to take time off now for instances of being sick or needing time off for other reasons. If the Hospital was allowed to prevail here, the ripple effect of how and when they could use your PTO or cancel you from your scheduled shift would be disastrous!
Staffing is per Title 22 supposed to be based on patient acuity and the Acuity Committee has been struggling for months trying to get an acuity tool in place that is teachable, verifiable and used to determine staffing levels. They keep getting the run around and we are saying enough is enough. Staff to patient needs! Stop shortchanging our patients and stop adding to an already often stressful workplace by constantly working with short staffing levels! Think, "No one available from lab today", "No lab personnel on night shift", "send a CNA home after 4 hours because the Matrix only calls for 2.5 CNAs", "the ER has no one on call for emergencies or sick calls", "we can't find Nurses to hire for OB/GYN", etc. Enough!
May 13th will also be a time to celebrate. We will be celebrating the one-year mark of having our first contract and the many things we have accomplished in this past year that have helped make PVH safer than it was prior to ratification. We will also be celebrating the life of our longtime friend, colleague and Nurse/Patient Advocate extraordinaire, Kitty Brown, who passed away in February.
We have a lot of actions and events planned for the day with most of them taking place between the hours of 10am and 2pm. Inside Petaluma 103.3fm will be covering the picket line between 11am and noon, so please do your best to be out in front of the hospital during those hours if possible.
As always, I am grateful for your commitment to help each other, standing up for your patients and your profession. We are patient advocates above all else and keeping our patients and workplace safe is Nursing 101.
Thanks, and see you all on the 13th,
Jim Goerlich
SNP President & PVH Nurse for 22 years
In early 2016, Petaluma Valley Hospital Nurses filed a petition to decertify from CNA (California Nurses Association), the registered nurses union that had represented us for the past 30 years. The decision did not come lightly and was the result of a steady decline in effective, honest, and appropriate representation by CNA.
The nurses of PVH wanted a union that could advocate for them and their patients, a union that wasn't married to the corporation they claimed to protect us from, a union that was focused on protecting PVH nurses and patients, instead of racking up union dues and doing backroom deals with St Joseph Health to increase their revenue stream.
Mid 2016, a core group of nurses formed PVH’s very first in-house, nurse-run union called Petaluma Staff Nurse Partnership (SNP). A union FOR nurses, BY nurses. All we heard was “you can’t do it, don’t go small!” but in December of 2016 we held a historic vote that resulted in SNP becoming the new union to represent registered nurses at PVH.
After nearly 4 years of negotiations, on March 24th SNP and Petaluma Valley Hospital came to an agreement on a contract and the bargaining unit voted to ratify! Now the real work can begin. SNP continues to fight for the safety and rights of Petaluma Valley Hospital nurses.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR PATIENT ADVOCATES
To make an anonymous complaint regarding patient care or patient safety,
call:
The California Department of Public Health:
Phone: 707-576-6775
Website: https://hfcis.cdph.ca.gov/LongTermCare/ConsumerComplaint.aspx
and/or
The Joint Commission (JACHO):
Phone: 800-944-6610
Website: http://www.jointcommission.org/report_a_complaint.aspx
To make anonymous complaint regarding
missed meal period, rest period, or overtime, call:
The Department of Industrial Relations:
Phone: 707-576-2362
Website: http://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/HowToFileWageClaim.htm
SNP has been chronicling their story on this website since May of 2017. If you would like to read more, please visit the blog page for archived updates.