October 27, 2006
Heather Smith re-elected at UNA AGM
UNA’s AGM held in Edmonton this week wound up with the election for the position of President, and with Heather Smith re-elected. Just before the election results were announced, Peggy Tolhurst, the past President of Local #79 went to the microphone with a contingent of nurses from the Local bearing giant bouquets for both candidates. Peggy thanked the candidates for running and said how it important it was for the union to go through the exercise in democracy. Both Chandra Clarke who ran for President and Heather Smith are members at Local #79.
“I’m honoured to continue representing nurses,” Heather Smith said when the results were announced. “Nurses are showing strong confidence in our union as we face a trying time for our profession,” she said.
Several new members were also elected to the provincial executive board and delegates also passed the organization’s budget for the coming year.
Newly elected to the provincial executive board were: Keith Lang and Christine Doktor (North Central representatives), Holly Heffernan (South Central representative), (North Central representative), and Sandra Zak (Central District representative).
Nurses confronting shortage crisis
“In the units and workplaces across Alberta this was a year of frustration and stress for many, many nurses. Why? In one word -- staffing!” Heather Smith told delegates in her President’s address.
“You know the nursing shortage that we have been warning about. Well, this year it arrived in a bigger and more telling way than ever before.”
As UNA goes into provincial negotiations in January, solutions to the crisis are high on the nurses’ agenda, she said.
“We are going to work through our union to try to solve these serious problems,” Heather Smith said in her speech to the delegates.
“We have to solve these problems, and we will,” she said.
Michael Villeneuve: Nursing in 2020
Michael Villeneuve challenged nurses to deal with huge changes coming in our society and in nursing over the next few years in his talk and powerpoint presentation at the AGM. “If there is going to be a quarter less of us, what are we going to do differently?” he asked the delegates.
He warned that if nurses are not going to make changes, other people or groups will take over and make the changes anyway.
Villeneuve is a veteran nurse who served in the federal Office of Nursing Policy and now is the scholar in residence at the Canadian Nurses’ Association. He co-authored the Towards 2020 report.
He pressed the point that Canadians expect a great deal from nurses. “People expect that by 2020 the bulk of their care, the current GP role, will come from nurses,” he said. Watch for a more complete report on Villeneuve’s talk in the next UNA NewsBulletin.
Calgary ER triages get video cameras
Nurses at the Rockyview Emergency Department were startled this week when crews arrived to install audiovisual camera monitoring equipment at the desk. The nurses were concerned the Employer would use the camera to oversee their work and that it would increase stress levels for triage nurses.
It turns out that the Calgary Region had contacted UNA at a couple of levels to discuss the video monitoring, but it had failed to actually consult Emergency nurses and explain how the equipment would be used.
Many emergency nurses have been asking for video monitoring for years to protect staff and discourage abusive behaviour by patients and families at triage. Nurses from the Peter Lougheed Centre were welcoming the installation of cameras.
UNA continues to discuss implementation of the video system with the Calgary Health Region.
Newfoundland nurses reach tentative contract
The Newfoundland and Labrador Nurses Union announced it had reached a new tentative contact agreement with the provincial government this week.
“After many long months of negotiations, we are pleased to have reached a tentative agreement,” says Debbie Forward, NLNU president. “It has been a long arduous process and we are pleased to have made improvements in our contract.”
The agreement includes:
• A 0-3-3% wage increase, with 0% retroactive to July 1, 2005; 3% effective July 1, 2006; and 3% effective July 1, 2007
• A reduction in sick leave for new nurses, to 1 day per month, effective December 1, 2006
• A lump sum investment of $325,000 in the Educational Leave Fund
The premiums paid to nurses for evening, night and weekend shifts will be increased for the first time in over a decade. Both the night and evening premiums will be increased to 72 cents per hour (currently 33 cents/hour), and the weekend premiums will be increased to $1.25 per hour (currently 28 cents/hour), effective June 30, 2008.
U.S. ruling threatens union rights of nurses
Early in October the U.S. National Labor Relations Board declared that hospital RNs across the country who exercise professional clinical judgment in the interests of patients are “supervisors” and thus ineligible to join unions.
U.S. unions charged that the ruling by the Bush administration’s labor board that could deprive hundreds of thousands of RNs and other employees of their basic protections and democratic rights.
Nurses called public protests of the ruling by the board which they say is now stacked with Bush administration appointees hostile to unions and the rights of working people. Nurses’ unions also charged that the ruling could also endanger patient safety and create chaos in the nation’s hospitals, warns the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee.
The August 23, 2006 UNA Stat included a comment about the miscarriage experienced by Rose Lundy at the Peter Lougheed Health Centre. The UNA Stat incorrectly reported that “…she did not lose the baby in the waiting room.” UNA retracts the comment and expresses our apologies to the Lundy family for any distress our error may have caused. |
On the Lighter Side
Sick Leave Policy
TO: ALL EMPLOYEES
SUBJECT: SICK LEAVE POLICY
SICKNESS: No excuse. We will no longer accept your doctor’s statement as proof. We believe that if you are able to go to the doctor, you are able to come to work.
AN OPERATION: We are no longer allowing this practice. We wish to discourage any thoughts that you may need an operation. We believe that as long as you are an employee here, you will need all of whatever you have and should not consider having anything removed. We hired you as you are, and to have anything removed would certainly make you less than we bargained for.
DEATH: Other than your own. This is no excuse for missing work. There is nothing you can do for them, and we are sure that someone else can attend to the arrangements. However, if the funeral can be held in the late afternoon, we will be glad to allow you to work through your lunch hour and subsequently let you leave 1 hour early, provided your share of the work is ahead enough to keep the job going in your absence.
Your own: This will be accepted as an excuse. However, we require at least two weeks notice as we feel it is your duty to train your replacement.
ALSO Entirely too much time is being spent in the restroom. In the future, we will follow the practice of going in alphabetical order. For instance, those whose names begin with “A” will go from 8:00-8:15, and so on. If you’re unable to go at your time, it will be necessary to wait until the next day when your time comes again.
– We appreciate your cooperation.
– Hospital Administration
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