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Spring 2005

From your special representative Anne Goldman

With three major contracts settled, this is a good opportunity to acknowledge all the elected registered-nurse leaders who dedicated their time and energy to completing these successful negotiations. Each of us owes them sincere thanks for the personal and professional commitment they made. They participated in a challenging schedule while working at their jobs and responding to the needs of their significant others at home.

Anne Goldman

In each of our three negotiations, Visiting Nurse Service, Lutheran Medical Center and Staten Island University-South Site, our union team reviewed your demands, current trends, other settlements, and legislative issues. They tailored “on-time” agreements that responded to the needs of our registered nurses at each institution. That was a job well done.

That was also just step one.

Now comes the really hard part.

Now, each of us must dedicate our time and energy to enforcing these agreements.

We share a mutual obligation with one another and with the patients we serve to see that the hard-fought-for contract is adhered to by management. Only with management following the contract — and not just signing it — can we be enabled to provide quality nursing care. That means being vigilant and protesting immediately when managers break the rules.

Because whether it is about staffing, floating or a salary issue, if you do not file a timely complaint or grievance you are in effect abetting and accepting a substandard level of working conditions. That is unacceptable. There needs to be a paper trail. When there is no paper trail highlighting an infraction, the employer is not required to take note of any problem, let alone resolve it. That means that each of us must communicate and document issues affecting our practice.

Every one of our elected registered nurse leaders has been trained and educated to assist you with any questions or concerns you may have. Use them. Don’t rely instead on middle managers.

Remember, middle mangers often do not know or understand our contract. Their agenda, as managers operating for the top hospital officials, is quite different from our goal of maintaining excellent working conditions. That means you must make every effort to check with your union representative about any issues or concerns related to your practice.

Another problem: All too often, we are told that certain programs or units are not in compliance with contractual provisions. This is unacceptable. If your vacation schedule isn’t posted in a timely way, if you haven’t been granted paperwork time or staffing is not done according to the contractual ratio, you must notify us. Because every member plays a vital role in assuring appropriate compliance with the contract. Patient care also depends on it, as do recruitment and staff retention of staff.

So never accept an incorrect practice or an inferior standard. Doing so weakens all of us.

Since our founding more than 25 years ago, the Federation of Nurses/UFT has been a vehicle for the professional growth and development of nurses as well as a defender of good salaries and working conditions. Our goal is to recruit and retain professional staff dedicated to providing quality care for each individual we serve. The contract provides the framework for doing so. It offers fairness to the staff, guarantees workplace safety, and delivers the good economic standards and working conditions necessary for nurses to function at the highest level.

Please also join us at our functions and rallies and become a part of our union’s public voice. In the political arena, our union has a multifaceted structure that puts us at the forefront in advocating for patient care on the city, county, state and national levels. I urge you to become a part of that good work. Talk to your chapter leader about how to get more involved.

— Anne Goldman