Open Letter from Closed Minds

Thursday, November 3rd, was a another vibrant day on the line.

Unfortunately CPMC management chose to continue their lies instead of dealing with their workers and giving us a good contact.

In case you missed their "open letter" to Sal Roselli in the paper.  They claimed that they had offered to meet all of the union demands and Sal was keeping us out on strike because of some secret power play.  Funny, I seem to remember my coworkers and I voting to go out on strike.

I seem to remember being fed up with having 18 patients on evening shift when Catholic Healthcare West caps their evening shift aides at 8 patients.

While everyone on the line respects Sal, workers don't go out on strike for over 50 days unless they have strong personal feelings about their working conditions, benefits and wages.

Who made us strike?

Sal didn't make us do it.

The Devil didn't make us do it.

Management and its commitment to giving the workers more work and less pay than our competitors brought us to the ballot box.  We voted to strike.

There isn't some phantom union boss pulling the strings and CPMC knows it.

They treated us as if we were invisible before the strike and now they spend their money on an "Open Letter" to Sal as if the workers didn't exist.

Today on the picket line we passed around copies of the  Chronicle ad and everyone was disgusted.

Their claim that they agree to staffing arbitration is a lie.  Any department that has government rules would be exempt.  So because RNs have a legal ration CNAs would still be stuck with 18 patients on evening shift perhaps more if someone called in sick.

Their education "offer" of $1,000 is a joke.  That will not pay for private school and City College nursing slots are so rare that they are distributed by lottery.  If there isn't an opening, what good is the money.

The Unions vision of a giant education fund is what we need.  By combining all of the workers education money into a Superfund, they could create classes so the money could actually be used.  It is about the economies of scale being used to make sure the soon to retire Baby Boomers have enough health care workers when they need them.

CPMC could have saved millions of dollars on Security, Replacement workers & advertising by just communicating with their workers.

Listen to Us.  Listen to the Federal Mediator's Proposal.

C'mon Sutter, Just Say Yes!!!

-- Tom

Comments

[emily stone]

good one tom!!!!
great title!!
open letter from closed minds is the truth.
so is "liar liar, pants on fire"
when will the lies end????

[emily stone]

hi guys,
well, i had been off a few days and came back to the line. i found out that the hospital was willing to come back to the table (thats good), and then found out that the only day they wanted to come back was the day that the board of supervisors, union, catholic healthcare west, and kaiser would be at city hall discussing "the future of healthcare in san francisco without sutter".
sutter, please!!!! i guess all you can do is laugh and say "LET THE GAMES BEGIN". there is a lot of games going on and i for one am sick of them!!! this really isnt the time for games. reminds me of working on the psych unit where some of the patients might be a little manipulative. speaking of patients.... i am losing mine and getting impatient!!!
otherwise it was a pretty typical weekend on the line..... more laid back and social... lots of chatting and picketing.
wonder what today will bring???????????
see ya later

[Tom Black]

Finally someone who feels the same way I do. I too have 18 patients & if the cencus in the hospital is low, I can have up to 30. Thank you Tom for putting into writing the way I feel.

[emily stone]

boy, yesterday was a duzy. my first day picketing in the cold rain. to make matters worse, we got hassled pretty badly by officer tinner, (think that was his name, he was definatly forgetable), badge 331 of the san francisco police department. his attitude was awful and he yelled at, pushed and threatened the picketers..and i meaned pushed.he also told his superior officer that he called to the scene that "one of the picketers raised a stick to me" and his superior officer said that he couldnt have his officers being threatened. it didnt happen, i was there, i saw it and know that it didnt happen...no stick was raised!!! and this was because we didnt move when he asked us to....10 seconds (yes thats right kids...we count the seconds off and that is how i know) into attempting to picket in front of the scab vans. by the way, i didnt see the "big fat man in the scab van" today. in case you're wondering about the reference.... one night recently, while we were picketing, after several days of this guy trying to intimidate us by filming us with his movie camera, we had enough. we started singing a made up song to the tune of "babyface".so we sang "camara man, we got the cutest little camera man, ,,,,the big fat jerk driving scabs to work...etc etc etc...cant really remember all the lyrics, but it was fun, funny and pretty accurate. the day after that, he tried to push the scab van forward and someone 'held up the hand', and said "dont make me sing". wouldnt you know it the guy grinned sheepishly and stopped rolling.
what else,oh yeah, the hospital agreed to bargain (isnt that special)again. we will see if it is for real this time or just more posturing and games.
last but not least, when i got home there were 5 more messages begging me to "vote no"!!. i am "voting no",already! leave me alone!!!!
well kids, thats all from strikeland, see you later

[emily stone]

still waiting after all this time!!!!
well lets see now. yesterday on the line was a day of waiting. we were waiting to see if anything happened in bargaining. apparently there was a threat of the hospital actually attempting to "get this thing settled". why now, after all this time???? I will let you draw your own conclusions.
we were also waiting on the election results. as it turned out we won big on that and all the props were defeated!! yeah!!!
on another topic, alfonso came in with a bandage on his arm where officer tinner had twisted his arm and he had sprained it. this all happened last night when sfpd officer 331 physical and emotionally harrased and hurt the other picketers and alfonso. and to make matters worse, this behavior was supported by his supervisor, whom he called to the scene.
well thats it for today, i have to get going and see what, if anything has come of the bargaining
see ya

[B]

I think the devastating defeat of Arnold last night will help. Sutter can't be stupid. The handwriting is on the wall - the anti-unions folks are on their way out of power in Sacramento.

[RN]

What an exciting day! All our combined efforts have paid off. We have successfully defeated The Terminator! Perhaps he will think twice before attacking nurses and
working people of California!! CPMC should be quite humbled by the election. What power we have when we stick together! I sincerely hope that things go well in bargaining today. This year could be the best Thanksgiving ever. In solidarity,
RN honoring your picket line.

[emily stone]

i would like to thank "RN", for having the guts and commitment to honor our strike line. especially since we have now settled the strike. it was support like this that helped the settlement process.
sincerely
emily