California Nurses Assn

The Service Employees International Union and California Nurses Assn. announced Thursday that they had ended their long-running feud and would now jointly organize employees at large medical facilities across the country. The two groups have had some ugly turf battles over who ought to represent the nation's nurses, who remain largely unrepresented. Under the agreement, the CNA will represent nurses, while the SEIU will represent the other workers at facilities they organize.

A California legislative committee gave preliminary approval Tuesday to a bill that would tighten security at hospitals and increase their requirements for reporting violent acts to the state. The bill given the nod by the Assembly Committee on Health was sponsored by Assemblywoman Mary Hayashi (D-Hayward) and the California Nurses Assn., which claims that nurses are facing an epidemic of violence in hospitals. It follows the death last October of Cynthia Palomata, a nurse who was bludgeoned at a medical facility at a jail in Martinez in Northern California.

The California Nurses Assn. was granted a charter this week to join the AFL-CIO, the nation's largest labor organization. The move, approved Thursday by the AFL-CIO during a meeting in Las Vegas, unites the country's largest labor federation, which has 10 million members and 54 unions, with a union of 75,000 registered nurses known for political protests and for aggressive organizing. Both sides had sought the alliance.

A California judge issued a temporary restraining order Tuesday barring thousands of nurses from striking this week at University of California hospitals and student health centers. San Francisco County Superior Court Judge Peter J. Busch said that a strike would be contrary to public interest and might break the law. The order was requested by the California Public Employment Relations Board, a state regulatory agency that handles public employee relations. Officials at the California Nurses Assn.

A California judge issued a temporary restraining order Tuesday barring thousands of nurses from striking this week at University of California hospitals and student health centers. San Francisco County Superior Court Judge Peter J. Busch said that a strike would be contrary to public interest and might break the law. The order was requested by the California Public Employment Relations Board, a state regulatory agency that handles public employee relations. Officials at the California Nurses Assn.

A California nurses union will join with two others across the country to create what they say will be the nation's largest registered nurses union. The new group, the United American Nurses-National Nurses Organizing Committee, will merge United American Nurses, the Massachusetts Nurses Assn. and California Nurses Assn./National Nurses Organizing Committee, which together represent 150,000 nurses. Rose Ann DeMoro, president of the 85,000-member California Nurses Assn., said the move is meant to capitalize on labor's longed-for passage of the proposed Employee Free Choice Act, which would revamp labor laws to make union membership easier.

The California Nurses Assn. filed a petition Thursday with a federal labor board, seeking to unionize registered nurses at seven Los Angeles County hospitals owned by Tenet Healthcare, the nation's second-largest for-profit hospital chain. If the 1,500 Tenet nurses vote to join the union, they will follow thousands of others in Southern California in organizing to seek better pay and working conditions. The unionization effort has been pursued aggressively by the California Nurses Assn.

The National Labor Relations Board has thrown out a vote by nurses to unionize at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, ruling that the California Nurses Assn. engaged in unfair tactics that influenced the election. The NLRB's ruling, released Monday, found that anonymous threatening phone calls to an employee with known anti-union views was likely to have intimidated enough nurses to potentially change the election's outcome. The vote to unionize was decided by a margin of 695 to 627.

The 6,000-member California Nurses Assn. voted by a 10-1 margin to go out on strike at 25 Kaiser medical facilities in Northern California on Jan. 18, a spokeswoman said. "We are disappointed at Kaiser's proposals," said Jan Dillon, spokeswoman for the association. Earlier this week, Kaiser made an offer that would raise salaries 15% over the next three years to more than $40,000 a year. The nurses are asking for raises of 8% in each year of a two-year contract.

Members of the American Nursing Assn. opted to go ahead and picket in front of KNBC-TV in Burbank on Wednesday, even though producer Aaron Spelling previously had vowed to change what they were protesting: the "offensive" portrayal of student nurses in NBC's "Nightingales." "We want to reinforce the enlightenment," Terry Ajir, California Nurses Assn. Region 3 president, said before the planned 4:30 p.m. demonstration. She said that the signs would express thanks to those who were instrumental in changing the risque image of student nurses.

Republicans have yet to formally decide their gubernatorial nominee, but California Democrats are already launching their campaign against the candidate they expect to win: frontrunner Meg Whitman. The California Nurses Assn. will begin advertising Wednesday on Spanish-language radio stations about the billionaire's position on immigration, a coalition of unions plans to launch anti-Whitman TV ads next week and presumptive Democratic nominee Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown unveiled his first online spot on Tuesday.

Labor unions representing California nurses are attacking key parts of a bill that would overhaul the state's system for investigating and disciplining health workers accused of misconduct. The objections by the politically powerful California Nurses Assn., Service Employees International Union and groups for other health professions come days before a state Senate panel is set to vote on moving the bill forward. The Senate Committee on Business, Professions and Economic Development must advance the bill Monday or it is dead for this session.

State inspectors investigating claims by nurses that faulty drug pumps had led to the accidental overdose of five patients at UC Irvine Medical Center found three deficiencies and issued an "immediate jeopardy" warning, alleging that patient care was at risk, hospital officials acknowledged Thursday. The warning earlier this summer is one of the most serious that can be issued against a hospital -- and typically federal or state inspectors stay on site until a plan to correct the problem is in place.

The Service Employees International Union and California Nurses Assn. announced Thursday that they had ended their long-running feud and would now jointly organize employees at large medical facilities across the country. The two groups have had some ugly turf battles over who ought to represent the nation's nurses, who remain largely unrepresented. Under the agreement, the CNA will represent nurses, while the SEIU will represent the other workers at facilities they organize.

A California nurses union will join with two others across the country to create what they say will be the nation's largest registered nurses union. The new group, the United American Nurses-National Nurses Organizing Committee, will merge United American Nurses, the Massachusetts Nurses Assn. and California Nurses Assn./National Nurses Organizing Committee, which together represent 150,000 nurses. Rose Ann DeMoro, president of the 85,000-member California Nurses Assn., said the move is meant to capitalize on labor's longed-for passage of the proposed Employee Free Choice Act, which would revamp labor laws to make union membership easier.

University of California hospital nurses voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike in a dispute about staffing levels, the California Nurses Assn. said Tuesday. The vote, which ended Sunday night, allows the negotiating team to call a strike if it reaches a point where it feels that further talks are fruitless. Beth Kean, director of the association's University of California division, said the nurses are upset because UC has been cutting staff at all five hospitals for what appears to be financial reasons, even though the hospitals are profitable.

Re "Kids pay price in medical turf war," Column, Nov. 23 California's nurses share Steve Lopez's concerns for the problems that diabetic students face. For years, school nurses have been asking the system to prioritize school nursing services for many needs, including treatment for Type 1 diabetic children. But rather than fighting for more licensed nurses to protect our children, some school administrators prefer to take risks with our children's health. The proposal that unlicensed school workers with four hours of training be allowed to administer drugs or oversee healthcare for students is a recipe for disaster -- especially when that drug is insulin.

Re "Health and education," editorial, Oct. 16 Barack Obama and John McCain have stark differences on healthcare. McCain's plan would establish a tax on health coverage and would deregulate minimum insurance standards that nurses, patients and consumers have fought so hard to win. In California, that could mean insurers would no longer be required to cover cancer screenings, minimum maternity stays and the right to appeal insurance denials of needed...