Chino Valley Organizing Campaign Moves Toward Negotiations – March/April’11 Voice

April 2011

On many days, it’s hard for Registered Nurses at the Chino Valley Medical Center (CVMC) to believe that the day will ever come when the elected Bargaining Team can actually sit down to negotiate a first contract with management.  After a three year organizing campaign, and with the one year anniversary of the election night victory on April 1, 2010 near, CVMC still refuses to negotiate.

Rather than honor the wishes of their own nurses and enter into a respectful and cooperative negotiation, CVMC management filed twenty-nine objections with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).  The Hospital even claimed the Union had threatened acts of violence and vandalized property, before withdrawing the charges after failing to present any evidence at all to back them up.

Ultimately the NLRB ruled in favor of the nurses.  The election was certified on January 25, 2011, making the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals (UNAC/UHCP) the official representative body for CVMC nurses.  It looked like they would finally have their day at the table.

But CVMC picked up its ball and went home, rather than play fair and square.  On February 2, 2011, CVMC’s Assistant General Counsel sent a certified letter to UNAC/UHCP President Ken Deitz notifying him that hospital administrators refused to negotiate with the CVMC Registered Nurses in spite of the certification.  The NLRB’s Region 31 again sided with the 125 Chino Valley nurses, rejecting management’s refusal to negotiate in good faith, in a mid-February decision.  Region 31 is using a fast-track process to attempt to resolve the matter as quickly as possible.

The UNAC/UHCP legal team continues to fight the legal battles necessary to compel Chino Valley management to finally respect its nurses by facing them across a bargaining table.  When that happens, the bargaining team will be ready to hammer out a contract that protects quality patient care.  When all 125 RNs are able at last to vote for a first contract and sign on the dotted line, their victory will be complete.