CA Nurses Association using the H1N1 pandemic as a smokescreen to pursue its union-organizing agenda.
UHm, this look like a it is going to be a rich pickings winter...
California Hospitals Urge Nurses Union to Stop H1N1 Scare Tactics
Tue Oct 20, 2009 7:13pm EDT Email | Print | Share| Reprints | Single Page[-] Text [+]
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CNA's Planned Oct. 30 Strike is About Contract Negotiations, Not H1N1
Preparedness
SACRAMENTO, Calif., Oct. 20 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The California Hospital
Association (CHA) is engaged with hospitals and state and local public health
officials in a voluntary statewide effort to ensure that all hospital workers
-- including registered nurses -- are vaccinated against the H1N1 flu virus.
"Hospital caregivers are on the front lines in responding to the H1N1
pandemic," said CHA President and CEO C. Duane Dauner. "Although no one yet
knows how rapidly the H1N1 flu may spread or how serious the illness may
become, it's essential that the nurses and other clinicians who work in our
community hospitals be given the highest level of protection possible against
the virus so that they can continue caring for patients. The best protection
against the H1N1 flu is to be vaccinated."
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has stated that
"vaccines are the most important tool we have for preventing influenza."
Based on this expert advice, Dauner urges the California Nurses Association to
join with CHA and state and public health officials to promote vaccinations to
all health care workers. Additionally, hospitals and nurses should work
together in a public education campaign aimed at helping to stop the spread of
the disease.
Among the everyday actions recommended by the CDC are:
-- Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze
-- Wash your hands often with soap and water, or use an alcohol-based
hand
sanitizer
-- Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth
-- Stay home if you get sick
Dauner calls upon the California Nurses Association (CNA) to stop using the
H1N1 pandemic as a smokescreen to pursue its union-organizing agenda. CNA
yesterday announced a one-day strike for Oct. 30 at 39 hospitals across
California, Nevada and Arizona. Although CNA claims that the strike is about
H1N1 preparedness, the labor union has publicly acknowledged that it is in
contract negotiations or organizing campaigns at these same hospitals. CNA
did not accuse any other hospitals of being unprepared.
"How can CNA promote a strike against three hospital organizations during the
flu season?" Dauner asked. "Protecting patients is about more than bargaining
rhetoric. It is about truly putting the interests of patients first. Taking
nurses out on strike at the very time that hospitals are being flooded with
patients needing care is unconscionable."
Dauner noted that the CNA is well aware that hospitals are "implementing a
multitude of measures" to respond appropriately to the unprecedented H1N1
pandemic -- including offering the H1N1 vaccine to all workers as the vaccine
becomes available; sending employees home who appear at work with flu
symptoms; isolating patients; revising visitation policies to include such
things as screening, restricting hours and requiring the use of masks;
implementing special triage procedures; developing educational materials and
messages; and adopting special testing services.
Hospitals are striving to provide employees with appropriate personal
protective equipment. However, a major challenge is the documented shortage
of N95 respirator masks. Although many hospitals have some supplies of N95
masks on hand, the manufacturing shortfall has prevented hospitals from
obtaining the number of masks that are required.
"Hospitals are doing all they can to obtain the supplies and equipment they
need, but there is only so much hospitals can do," Dauner noted. "The nurses
union should call a halt to the disruptive strike and instead focus its
resources on working collaboratively with hospitals and public health
officials to put the needs of patients first."
SOURCE California Hospital Association |
