Latest News - Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital

Huge contract victories for NUHW

2012-04-05T21:09:41Z

April kicked off with a string of huge contract victories for healthcare workers in NUHW…and we’re stoked!

At Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, after a nine-year struggle to organize a union and win a fair contract, we reached agreement for a great contract on Tuesday. Our tentative agreement, reached after 11 months of bargaining, includes across-the-board wage increases of 7% over three years, first-time wage scales, and provides for better retirement benefits than those negotiated by SEIU-UHW at Dignity Health (formerly Catholic Healthcare West.)

At Keck Medical Center at USC in Los Angeles, NUHW members reached a tentative agreement for an outstanding contract with no takeaways and raises of 9.75 to 33 percent over three years.

And at Doctors Medical Center San Pablo last night, we ratified an agreement to win retroactive raises going back to June of 2011 after fighting back our employers’ demand for healthcare concessions.

All of these victories have one thing in common: NUHW is showing the world what healthcare workers can accomplish when we stand up and fight back.

The difference with SEIU-UHW could not be clearer. SEIU thinks we should settle for takeaways with Kaiser Permanente, a company that made over $6 billion in profits in the last three years! That’s not right.

At all three of our hospitals, we showed what we can accomplish when we stand up and say “NO” when the boss asks for takeaways.

With our contract victories, word about NUHW is spreading. Workers at Hazel Hawkins Medical Center in Hollister just submitted a petition to demand an election to leave SEIU-UHW and join NUHW this week.

Sincerely,

Duka Ristic, Lead Ultrasound Tech, Doctors Medical Center San Pablo
Paisely Roberts, Care Partner II, Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital
National Union of Healthcare Workers

Talking Union: "With God on Our Side" by Adam Reich, a review

2012-03-23T16:49:29Z

By Carl Finamore, Mar. 16, 2012
Talking Union

“With God on Our Side” is a very catchy book title. It also appears at first glance to be quite topical because mention of religion so dominates, and distorts many would add, political discussion in this country.

For that reason, curiosity may initially draw the reader’s eye. But the subtitle “The Struggle for Workers’ Rights in a Catholic Hospital” gives it all away. This is a book about organized labor and workers.

This is usually where most readers take flight. But that would be a mistake because it is so much more.

Books about labor post dreadfully low sales, true enough. Nonetheless, Adam Reich has written a very readable and colorful “story of worker leaders” at the largest and most prestigious hospital in the northern California town of Santa Rosa.

The story, however, carries political lessons far beyond the geography of this small-town power struggle. Reich has written a human-interest story about people and why some act so passionately to improve their lives.

Congratulations to NUHW's new Executive Board

2012-03-12T19:08:33Z

NUHW Executive Board joined by Gary Allen, General Vice President, IAMNUHW Board Members

Sal Rosselli, President
John Borsos, Secretary-Treasurer

Vice Presidents

LaNeta Fitzhugh, Kaiser LAMC
Michael Beshears, Kaiser LAMC
Danilo Mendoza, Kaiser LAMC
Eloise Reese-Burns, Cottonwood
Helen York-Jones, Sutter CPMC
Porfirio Quintano, Sutter CPMC
Rodney Dyson, Doctors Medical Center San Pablo
Turusew Gedebu-Wilson, Kaiser HCP
Maria Padilla-Castro, Kaiser IBHS
Clem Papazian, Kaiser IBHS
Spencer Gross, Kaiser IBHS
James Clifford, Kaiser KPC
Elizabeth White, Kaiser KPC
David Mallon, Kaiser KPC
Otto Pimentel, Kaiser Optical
Ernesto Gonzales, Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital
Angelic Valladares, Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital

Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital Workers are Certified as NUHW Members

2010-12-30T21:01:16Z

In a major step forward for workers at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, yesterday hospital management informed the union in writing of its “intention to move forward and commence negotiations for an initial collective bargaining agreement with NUHW.” The news caps a seven-year struggle by SRMH caregivers to win union recognition at their hospital.

The hospital’s letter follows a decision by the National Labor Relations Board to certify a December 2009 election in which workers voted for NUHW over “No Union” by 283 to 263, with 13 votes for SEIU. The election was the largest successful hospital organizing drive in the country for 2009.

After the vote count a year ago, the employer filed election objections with the NLRB in the hopes of overturning the election. In May, an administrative law judge rejected those charges and certified NUHW as the workers’ exclusive collective bargaining agent.

Seven months after announcing his decision, the NLRB has complied with the judge’s order and certified the election for housekeepers, dietary workers, clerical employees, Certified Nursing Assistants, Respiratory Therapists, Radiology Technologists and other caregivers.

“For years, management tried everything they could to stop us from having a voice, including working with SEIU to silence us. But we persisted, and we prevailed,” said Melissa Bosanco, a Care Partner at SRMH. “Now it’s time to get to the bargaining table and win a contract that improves the lives of workers and that makes our hospital the best place in the region for patients to receive care.”

Read the NLRB decision.

Read coverage in the Press Democrat.

In The News: Memorial hospital and right to organize

2010-12-21T18:35:33Z

The following is an opinion piece in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat about NUHW members’ year-long (and counting) struggle for union recognition at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, and how U.S. labor laws work beautifully for employers — and horribly for workers.

Read the full piece at the Press Democrat.

Guest Opinion: Memorial Hospital and the right to organize

By MARTIN J. BENNETT

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the National Labor Relations Act, legislation that extended basic labor rights to American workers, including the rights to organize, to bargain collectively and to strike for fair wages, benefits and workplace safety.

The organizing campaign by Memorial Hospital workers is representative of how labor law is failing American workers. What are the facts?

Read the rest of the essay.

NUHW Members Recognized with "Working Class Hero Award"

2010-12-03T22:56:08Z

Last night, NUHW was proud to accept the “Working Class Hero Award” from the North Bay Labor Council on behalf of approximately 700 caregivers at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital who won the largest hospital organizing campaign in the nation in 2009. The workers at Santa Rosa Memorial exemplify the principles and values that inspired the creation of our new union: militant, bottom-up, democratic trade unionism.

Sadly, Santa Rosa Memorial caregivers are still awaiting certification of their election of a year ago. Instead of respecting their choice, the hospital’s corporate parent, St. Joseph Health System, filed objections to the election in an attempt to deny the workers their right to organize a union at their workplace.

NUHW is grateful to the North Bay Labor Council for its recognition of the remarkable achievement of the workers at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital.