SEIU Nurses Back to Work –updated–
This coverage sponsored by the SEIU.
UPDATE (10:01 a.m.): Here are a couple of important round ups on the SEIU nurse lock-out story at Think Progress and American Progress. We did a lot of good in a very short period of time. On behalf of SEIU nurses, thanks for everyone's support. It could not have happened without you all. BUT JUST TO BE CLEAR, this is not over. There are still some very bad people running UHS. I intend to keep the pressure on and you should too.
The public support for the SEIU nurse lockout has been amazing. I interviewed Chris Moore, seen in the video above, as well as other SEIU nurses. Their courage
has paid off, at least as it stands right now. It's an important fight for so
many reasons.
Unions, as I wrote in Hostile
Takeover, are the institutions on the front lines fighting for employees
and against abuses by big corporate conglomerates whose only goals are to
maximize profits. As this conflict shows, unions are fighting both for workers'
economic rights and for the environments that will let them do their jobs
most effectively – a key attribute indentified in the CAP
study that all professional workers see as a major reason unions should
expand.
Governor-elect Gibbons and Democrats Assembly
Speaker Barbara Buckley and Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman
and Clark County Commission Chairman Rory Reid helped make this happen. After a very
long four hour meeting late yesterday afternoon, the lockout was called off and the
nurses can report to work at 6:00 a.m. on Saturday. The picketing is over, but
now more work begins.
It's not over until there is a contract, but Universal Health Services has been forced back to the bargaining
table, at least \”tentatively,\” with two 30-day bargaining periods
in place.
Frankly, I don't think David Bussone, Valley Health director for Universal
Health Services, expected the public outcry and all the noise across the progressive
blogosphere. When the new deal was struck and the politicians made their statement,
Bussone chose not to join the people who helped move this crisis forward.
Nurses would return to work at two Las Vegas hospitals under an agreement
brokered Tuesday by elected officials who said they wanted to avoid a prolonged
strike.\”The labor strife is over, at least temporarily,\”
state Assembly Speaker-elect Barbara Buckley said after a bipartisan group
of four political leaders met for more than four hours with a top hospital
official and negotiated by telephone with nurses' union leaders. \”Cooling
off starts December sixth.\”Valley Health System released a statement saying that while the hospital
group agreed to two 30-day cooling-off periods, there was no commitment that
a contract would be reached.Nurses convened an emergency meeting to decide whether to endorse the agreement
and end picketing that began Monday at Valley and Desert Springs hospitals,
two facilities with a total of 695 beds and a regular staff of about 800 nurses.(snip)
Under the proposed agreement, Universal and the union will meet for up to
30 days with a federal mediator to try to resolve sticking points, which were
said to include pay and nurse-to-patient staffing ratios.If no new contract is reached, the two sides agreed to let the elected officials
appoint another mediator to oversee another 30 days of talks. No names were
offered, although Buckley said it would be \”a well-respected Nevadan.\”
…Hospital
company agrees to let Las Vegas nurses return to work
I spoke with my contact from SEIU late yesterday evening and he told me the news,
which made it to the airwaves and web late last night. Chris said the nurses were
in good spirits and thrilled to be going back to work. Mind you, the SEIU nurses
had been willing to follow a 30-day cooling off period from the start. It's
Bussone and UHS that walked away and locked the nurses out.
The cooling off period begins today. Let's keep our fingers crossed, because
this isn't over by a long shot. However, at the end of the 60 days there should
be a new contract for the SEIU nurses.
So, Saturday at 6:00 a.m., the SEIU nurses go back to work and to care for
their patients. There will be no repercussions for picketing UHS.
Comments are closed.