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More than 100 nurses hit the streets this morning to protest what they call poor working conditions at El Camino Hospital, after hospital officials and representatives from the nurses union hit an impasse in contract negotiations.
Starting around 7:30 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 9, large groups of nurses paced along Grant Road outside the hospital campus with signs that read “Benefits or bust” and “Safe staffing saves lives.” New nurses rotated in as their shifts ended. The event was not a strike — it was billed as an informational picketing — but it was a clear signal from the nurses’ union that members are unhappy with the way negotiations are going.
Since February, tough negotiations have been going on between El Camino Hospital and its nurses’ union, which represents roughly 1,265 nurses across the hospital’s Mountain View and Los Gatos campuses. After multiple mediation sessions, both parties agreed to begin the fact-finding process next week, which is often seen as a final stage of impasse resolution before a strike.
“We want to get the message out to the community that we are struggling to reach an agreement,” said Jean Christen, president of the union, Professional Resource for Nurses (PRN), at El Camino Hospital.
Nurses on the picket line say working conditions have deteriorated at the hospital, and that staffing shortages have forced them to work long shifts with no meal or rest breaks. The union is seeking an agreement with the hospital to ensure “safe” nurse staffing levels that can handle the number of patients in each unit, Christen said, because the bare-bones staff is being overworked. During her 28 years at El Camino, she said negotiations have very rarely reached the point of picketing.
“What happened with this contract, we’re not quite sure,” she said.
Other nurses’ concerns include wage increases over the next three years. Although specific details about the hospital’s current offer remain confidential, PRN representatives have argued that El Camino Hospital’s nurses make less than their peers at competing hospitals, including Stanford Hospital, Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, Kaiser and the University of California San Francisco Medical Center.
“The nurses at El Camino Hospital are behind the average across the board,” said Joe Brenner, a member of the union’s negotiation team.
SarahMarie Vargas, a nurse at El Camino Hospital, said she was denied vacation time for her wedding and honeymoon later this year, despite asking for it five months in advance. When she asked human resources staff if something could be worked out so she doesn’t have to attend her own wedding via FaceTime, Vargas said she was given a list of per diem nurses that she had to call to try to get one to cover for her.
“I understand scheduling vacation is based on seniority, but for monumental events like a wedding, there should be an exception,” she said.
During her shifts at the hospital, Vargas said there’s no time to take breaks because of short staffing, which she said is due to a conscious effort by hospital management to cut down on costs. And although the the hospital is legally obligated to compensate employees who work through their breaks, she said nurses often feel intimidated and discouraged from filling out the forms saying they’ve done so.
“Every shift, the charge nurses are encouraged to staff down,” she said. “I know it’s a business and you have to be economically mindful, but at what expense?”
In a statement released prior to the picketing, El Camino Hospital officials maintained that the hospital has bargained in good faith since February, and that both parties have already agreed on 31 unspecified “tentative agreements” for the next three-year contract. Rest and meal breaks, as well as the staffing ratios that determine whether nurses can take a break, are determined by state law and are not part of the negotiations, according to Kelsey Martinez, interim director of marketing and communications at El Camino Hospital.
Chief Nursing Officer Cheryl Reinking told the Voice in an email that the hospital’s proposed wage increases are “consistent” with other Bay Area hospitals and are in the top 10 percent among competing hospitals.
El Camino Hospital has been recognized as a “magnet” hospital by the American Nursing Credentialing Center for its high-quality nursing care, a designation held by only two hospitals in Santa Clara County. Christopher Platten, the attorney representing PRN, said El Camino Hospital risks losing its designation if it doesn’t provide adequate staffing as well as the competitive benefits and wages needed to attract and retain nurses.
Robin Simpson, a 36-year nurse picketing on the corner of Grant at North Drive, said she only plans to work for three more years, but felt she had to take a stand on bettering working conditions for the hospital’s nurses. She said El Camino Hospital needs to show that it supports the nursing staff that put in all the hard work to receive the magnet designation.
“If you don’t have good nursing, you don’t have magnet status,” she said.
Yet they can pay the CEO 800K
If it is true that Human Resources discourages nurses filing for pay because of missed breaks, the hospital board had better buckle up and bring out their check-book. Not only are employees entitled to this pay, failure to do so voluntarily can result in fines 3X the amount unpaid.
For the nurse who was not granted vacation for her wedding, the county of Santa Clara is hiring, as well as Stanford and Kaiser. No one should have to chose between a once in a lifetime celebration and an oppressive employer. I hope you recorded names, dates, and specifics, your union representative and their legal team would like to meet with you.
God Bless the caregivers.
@Insider – regarding the nurse denied vacation for her wedding, I’m pretty sure the requirement to grant vacation time based on seniority is an item the union required in their contract, not some arbitrary HR or hospital administration decision. Blame the admin for what’s their fault, but the vacation issue probably the union’s fault (i.e., it’s what they wanted negotiated into their contract to benefit their senior nurses, who are typically the most involved in the union).
Actually, the contract states that at least 1 vacation must be available, and more than that is up to the management. So the denial of the wedding is not union, and is all administrative. I wonder if the denial had something to do with the fact that the nurse who was denied happens to be on the union bargaining team? Something about that smells fishy. Like administrative retaliaton against a union representative…..
Contentious negotiations are very stressful; been there, done that! Working conditions, staffing levels, breaks, comparable pay… stay strong for these issues. Nurses are the best advocates that patients have, so never stop advocating! We stand with you!!
PRN is just getting greedy. They want to be the highest paid in the bay area yet they do nothing for the nurses. What will happen is the administration will force the contract and the great nurses will continue to leave. They both deserve each other. Unfortunately it’s the floor nurse that will have to pay the price
Stand strong Nurses. You know the real deal. You are at the bedside — you know the work load and you know the culture. I admire you .
Stand Strong Nurses! Without you all, the hospital is nothing. You deserve comparable pay, BREAKS, covered medical insurance, vaction for important MILESTONES and for “mental wellness,” and adequate staff! Nurses are patients’ best advocates!
Been following your negotiations for some time… about time the El Camino RNs did something about it and walked. Call it what it is ..a strike.. Nurses have themselves on a pedestal as professionals and look at strike as a dirty word. After 40 years in the business, I can tell you –YOU need to look out for each other as the hospital will NEVER EVER do so. Nursing sucks the life out of the hospital budget– TOO BAD– they would not have a hospital without you! Don’t cave
I volunteered at this hospital for almost 15 years until I moved overseas. The nursing staff here are the best I have ever seen. They put their heart and soul into caring for their patients and the outcomes show that. It is time to give them more help. El Camino is a not for profit community hospital: surely there’s room in the budget for some of the most important staff.
Bedside Nurses Stand Strong and Stand Together.
We nurses love our patents and value our patients wellbeing beyond compare and the triple magnet designations are proof of that quality. The hospital is throwing nursing under the bus and categorizing nursing care as an expenditure without awareness of the heart and soul of the nurses and their daily commitment to quality and high level outcomes.
Nurses at ECH are being pushed every four hours at work to reduce staffing – it is part of a strategy by the hospital to maximize revenue to fund building construction on mountain view, Los Gatos, and the new campus being developed in South San Jose. It is very obvious. The hospital is willing to sacrifice quality and nurses health and patient safety in order to gain more budget money to achieve construction goals.
Unfortunately, the nurse who was denied time off for wedding is not an isolated occurrence however the hospital administrators do target union representatives and they target anyone who speaks up about staffing, safety, or healthy work environment. Nurses are being targeted and even the most minimal issue is being used by admin to aggressively discipline nurses and incite fear of being fired into every nurse. It is deplorable that this organization has sunk to such a low and demeaning method to silence nurses and to achieve unrealistic budget goals on the backs of its nurses.
The hospitals negotiators are business only approach and nurses need to stand strong and stand together.
Being denied time off for your own wedding is nothing new. I hope that your co workers help you out, since that is probably the only way you will get the days off.
I have the joy of requesting my vacation 13 months in advance. It allows for a little flexibility, but it is hard to plan for issues that you can’t control.
Stand strong PRN! Every employer is out to break unions. Unions that have members only from one hospital group, such as El Camino, are really short sighted. Does the administration really want to negotiate with CNA?
As a nurse who worked at ECH for 10yrs, and is now retired, I am appalled. When I was there the CEO was making over a million dollars, while the nurses at the bedside made way less!!!! This entire situation has to stop!!! People will always get sick and need their hospitals to give quality care. That cannot happen if the nurses are not happy. After ECH hand picked the nurses to get their Magnet status, now if they don’t get with the program, they will lose that.
I always thought this was a special hospital, and all of the us who worked there took pride in our jobs. This is ridiculous!!! The CEO needs to voluntarily take less money, so that the real care givers can get their due!!! Why is it always fat at the top!!!!!!!!
Nursing is an honorable profession, and I was a practicing nurse for 45 years. All I can say, is I am ashamed of any administration who does not value their nursing staff.
Shame on you ECH for your greedy administrators who don’t care about the quality of care their nurses give!!!!
All I can say is I am glad I am retired!!!!!!!!
Just a bit more information- the union leaders are not all older nurses as one commenter stated. As a matter of fact, the union members and the board are composed of a cross section of ages. It is good that these quality of life issues and quality of care issues resonate with all age groups.
I’m confused. Was the wedding time off not given in order to maintain the safe staffing levels or because the contract was being observed? Yes, the CEO’s salary is disgusting. With the changes in healthcare payment, it won’t be long before this small stand alone community hospital is part of Stanford or Kaiser so you can make as much as they do. Or you can get a head start and go work there now.
I’ve worked at several other hospitals in the Bay Area since moving to San Jose 13 years ago. Since we opened the new hospital building aprox 7 years ago we have consistently met or significantly improved all patient care markers. That is a LOT of hard work across the nursing continuum. It is extremely stressful and demanding with, what feels like, increasing patient loads, severity of illness. ECH maintains MANY specialty designations as a Stroke Center, Cardiac Care, INTERNATIONALLY recognized excellence in the treatment of sepsis and dramatic improvements patient survival rates. Keeping all of this going, while still showing consistent improvements in State and Federal requirements, takes a LOT of training, dedication, mental, and emotional stamina.
People often do not know that Nursing has some of the highest burnout rates, exposure to work place violence and injury of any industry! Of the compensation packages other area hospitals have, ECH is generally short of those levels. For me, I stay at ECH because the work environment has generally been a VERY good one. However with the increasing stress, decreasing moral, loosing a CEO (who I think has done a good job and even answers the e-mails I send to her), and now to be stalled on the basic compensations nurses deserve is demoralizing. The working environment suffers, customer service suffers, we suffer.
As a nurse I do more than pass out pills and empty bedpans! I’m a project manager, data analyst, computer hardware technician (I work with a LOT of computerized equipment), social worker, dietician, counselor, secretary, on occasion a housekeeper (bless the housekeepers!). In general a “Jack of all trades, Master of none” as it were. To higher an individual technician for each of those varying job titles would cost SIGNIFICANTLY more than what you pay ONE nurse!
Nurses are exposed to violence (You try wrestling with a psychotic or drunk patient), any number of diseases, physical labor (pounding concrete floors all night, lifting a ever hefty patient population), injury to back, leg, knee, etc while contorting into any number of awkward positions to move equipment from one side of the bed to the other. We work when we are sick and injured and should be at home! We miss family and other events working nights, weekends and holidays. We cry and suffer when we’ve worked for hours trying to save the life of a child and been unable to, or when we are at the side of a terminally ill patient as they pass away. So if you think you can do all that day after day for years and not be compensated for it come on and follow me for a few nights! When executives are making sums of money several times what I do while sitting in an office chair M-F with holidays and weekends off, I’m still pretty cheap labor that is at the bedside to SAVE YOUR LIFE!