Unit 17: Registered Nurses

Our Union requested to meet and discuss with the Department of Veteran Affairs (CalVet) to establish written home-wide vacation scheduling procedures for Bargaining Unit 17 and Bargaining Unit 20, per the MOU sections 8.23.20 and 8.26.17. Leadership from each Bargaining Unit, along with Job Stewards from a handful of CalVet Homes, met over several months with CalVet management to establish an annual vacation bidding policy to be implemented at all eight Homes. 

The vacation scheduling policy sets the parameters for annual vacation bidding by classification.

On Wednesday, June 23, 2021, SEIU Local 1000 met with the Department of State Hospitals (DSH) to meet and discuss over the status and future of Health and Safety Committees at all five facilities, per Section 10.2 of the MOU. At this meeting, member leaders represented all the DSH facilities, except for Atascadero. Positive steps were taken and will continue in order to ensure success for Health and Safety Committees at each facility to appropriately address concerns collaboratively with management and all staff unions.

On Tuesday, May 4, 2021, SEIU Local 1000 met with the Department of State Hospitals (DSH) to meet and confer over DSH’s application for a permanent exemption to the California Standards for Workplace Violence Prevention in Healthcare, which mandates guidelines for reporting to the Department of Industrial Relations, Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) regarding workplace violence incidences.

Our Union met with California Correctional Health Care Services (CCHCS) to continue discussing the formation and implementation of an Employee Health Team (EHT) at each institution throughout the state.

Some of the major details from the Meet-and-Confer include:

CCHCS was asked to explain the overall, general status of the Employee Health program and any other relevant information, and they responded with the following updates:

On October 13, 2020, our Union met with California Correctional Health Care Services (CCHCS) to continue discussing the formation and implementation of an Employee Health Team (EHT) at each institution throughout the state.

Some of the major details from the meet and confer include:

1) Two Additional New Notices

Recently, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) sent our Union two new notices of changes in working conditions:

On August 25, 2020, our Union was notified by members that an email from Heidi Steinecker was sent to staff directing HFENs to sign a new duty statement.  Our Union immediately contacted CDPH Labor Relations informing them that we are still in the meet and confer process and our Union had not agreed to any duty statement. We also demanded that the duty statement be withdrawn immediately.

On Thursday, July 9, 2020, we met with management regarding the notice to shift focus of the Health Facility Evaluator Nurse (HFEN) workforce to infection prevention education in Skilled Nursing Facilities.

On Friday, June 12, 2020, the Union met virtually with CDPH management/HR about several HFEN concerns and we wanted to give you an update. 

Q: If HFENs will be assisting with COVID testing, will there be proper training?

Learn about how California’s Aerosol Transmissible Disease (ATD) standard protects us from the novel COVID-19 Virus.

In 2009, a new California occupational health standard was adopted to protect nurses and other healthcare workers from infectious agents such as tuberculosis, measles, and pandemic flu, as well as novel diseases such as COVID-19. The Cal/OSHA Aerosol Transmissible Disease (ATD) Standard is an enforceable regulation that applies in healthcare, corrections, and other high-risk environments. 

Update as of April 6, 2020

We know that you are in a fluid emergency situation, and we thank you for the hard work and sacrifices you make on a daily basis to care for California. We are continuing to advocate for you with the Department about issues that are changing almost daily. We wanted to update you on conversations we have had with the department on PPE and working weekends.  Below are some of the updates we wanted to share with you.

On Friday, August 9^th, Unit 17 and Unit 20 met with the state together as part of a joint table to discuss issues of mandatory overtime (MOT) and vacation scheduling at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) California Correctional Health Care Services facilities.

“I am very disappointed at the lack of movement by the state,” said Luisa Leuma, Chair of Bargaining Unit 20.  “It was a slap in the face that the state didn’t make any movement on these issues.”    

Our bargaining teams representing Unit 17 (Registered Nurses) and Unit 20 (Medical and Social Service Specialists) met jointly with the state on Monday, August 5, 2019, to negotiate over issues impacting members in both units.

“It’s past time for mandatory overtime to be eliminated,“ said Luisa Leuma, chair of bargaining unit 20. “We’re working to improve the work/life balance of our members and to get rid of mandated overtime shifts.”

Unit 17 bargaining team went to the table Friday and continued its efforts to create opportunities for better work schedules.

Many of our nurses work in 24-hour facilities and often are subject to management’s rigid scheduling practices, which don’t offer a lot of flexibility and few chances to make changes. In response, our team submitted stronger contract language for adjustable scheduling opportunities.

Highlights:

• Effective date: July 1, 2016
• Amount: Up to $6,000
  • $250 is accrued for all employees that meet the criteria each full quarter during the fiscal year 2016/2017
  • $500 is accrued for all employees that meet the criteria each full quarter effective July 1, 2017 until separation from DDS.
• Payout:
  • There will be two payouts of the retention stipend:
    • January 2018 or the first month following the 50% decr

The State Personnel Board (SPB) recently approved the creation of a Medical Assistant classification in state civil service. Our Contract gives us the opportunity to meet with the state on the salary and impacts of the new classification. We will stay involved in the introduction of this new position to ensure a smooth transition. To do this, we will meet with the state prior to the employment of new Medical Assistants to ensure the new classification is integrated into the Medical Classification Model.

Local 1000 leveraged our collective power to get relief for members at the State Special Schools who were struggling with delays in State Special Schools Benefit (SSSB) funds. SSSB funds are a type of unemployment benefit for employees of the State Special Schools run by the California Department of Education (CDE).

Local 1000 members and staff met several times over the past eight months with department representatives. The union forced management to identify what was causing delays and to find ways to minimize those delays. 

Last week, over 250 LVNs, RNs and Stewards from CCHCS made calls to Statewide CNE, Cheryl Schutt, to demand that she and CCHCS act to fix their mismanagement of the Post and Bid Process.   Thanks to all of you, our actions made an impact: within minutes of our calls, Labor Relations called Local 1000 to find out what was going on.

We’ve got their attention. Now we need to turn up the heat to force them to act.

Thanks to the efforts of Local 1000 members advocating for patient safety at Salinas Valley State Prison (SVSP), the long-broken emergency call light system there has been repaired.

Stewards are at the core of Local 1000’s power, the crucial connection between the members in the workplace and the union. So when one of our representatives is treated unfairly for doing the work of the union, they’ve picked a fight we’ll take to the mat.

It’s been said that, despite the paperwork and the long hours, nurses dispense comfort, caring and compassion … all without a prescription.

Every year we celebrate the extraordinary work of nurses during National Nurses Week. Nurses are the heart of our nation’s health care system; they are the human beings who put warmth and kindness into the sometimes impersonal world of modern medicine.

Thank you to our nurses for the care they provide to their patients and for the care they demonstrate in their ongoing efforts to advocate for their fellow workers.

As part of Local 1000’s campaign to ban mandatory overtime for nurses and certified nursing assistants in units 20 and 17, members will testify before an Assembly committee on Wednesday in support of AB 840. 

Last week Local 1000’s LVN Workgroup lobbied legislators in support of the legislation, which would eliminate mandatory overtime for nurses and certified nursing assistants in state prisons and mental hospitals.

AB 2155—the Local 1000-sponsored bill that would put an end to the dangerous practice of mandatory overtime for public sector nurses—has passed the Senate and Assembly, and has now moved to the desk of Governor Jerry Brown for his approval.

As the bill awaits the governor’s decision, Local 1000 member leaders are preparing to deliver nearly 3,000 commitment cards signed by Registered Nurses (RNs), Licensed Vocational Nurses (LVNs) and Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs) from throughout the state. 

Local 1000’s bargaining team signed the first tentative agreement of our new contract at the master table today, one that provides a huge advance in our fight against outsourcing.