In the last few months we have
reported on the bargaining fight in Santa Fe, NM for a new contract between 1199NM and Christus St. Vincent Hospital.
I am so happy to report that two months after the last contract expired, a new agreement has been reached–with firm staffing standards and an enforceable or accountable procedure.
After picketing and community actions for 66 days, workers in Santa Fe are ecstatic.
Collective action works–still.
When the safe staffing resolution we crafted came to the floor of the 1199 National Union of Hospital and Healthcare Workers Employees national convention, nurses and healthcare workers came to the floor to speak about the frustration of understaffing in hospitals today. They also spoke about the ongoing fight to ensure safe staffing in healthcare institutions. Healthcare workers from all over America came to the microphones to talk about the struggle for adequate staffing to take care of their patients. Of course the resolution passed unanimously.
The convention delegates were not just talking. They were expressing a serious frustration over their ability to make sure their patients had enough caregivers everyday to guarantee quality care.
As for the Christus St. Vincent Hospital in Santa Fe, I couldn’t be happier to inform you of the contract won on the terms of the workers. After 66 days of continual picketing and community action, the Mayor of Santa Fe called the hospital management back to the bargaining table to hammer out the staffing ratios and enforcement language.
Photo source: Local 1199 Santa Fe NM