LABOR ALERT: “Nurses Need Your Help!” (Cayuga Medical Center)

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LABOR COALITION
in behalf of Cayuga Medical Center Nurses Association/CSEA

LABOR ALERT

A group of Registered Nurses at the Cayuga Medical Center have recently decided to
organize a union with the help of CSEA/AFSCME, Local 1000.

Important issues in the nurses’ organizing campaign are:
|. Inadequate staffing, with units often working short staffed

2. Heavy demands placed on nurses to work extra-long shifts, and to work extra shifts on short
notice

3. Assignment of nursing duties to unqualified and untrained hospital staff
4. Cayuga Medical Center’s lack of commitment to continuing education for it’s nursing staff

These issues are important to the nurses at Cayuga Medical Center. These issues are
also vital to the quality of health care available to the residents of Tompkins County!

Nurses Need Your Help!

Cayuga Medical Center management was asked by CSEA to subscribe to a set of
principles (“Principles of a Fair Campaign”) which would guarantee an organizing campaign free
of intimidation and threats. These principles include an atmosphere of mutual respect between
the hospital and union; a commitment by the hospital to refrain from “captive audience”

meetings and “one-on-one” supervisor to employee mectings; and no discharges, disciplinary
actions, and no transfers of nurses to isolated work areas or shifts, duc to union activity.

Cayuga Medical Center has made it clear that it has no intention of subscribing to
the “Principles of a Fair Campaign”. Nurses will thus, need every bit of support the Labor

Movement and Community Organizations have to offer. Below, we have listed two tasks
we would ask supporters of a nurses’ union to do. These are:

1. Write a letter to Bonnie Howell, President and CEO of Cayuya Medical Center. This letter
should state your support for a Nurses’ Union, and should call on the hospital to subscribe to
the “Principles of a Fair Campaign”. A sample letter is included on the back of this Alert.

2. If you are a union member, or, if you are part of an organization Which would support nurses’

efforts to form a union, we would like to be invited to your next mecting to talk about the issues
and how you and your organization/union can help.

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SAMPLE LETTER

October , 1998

Bonnie Howell, President and CEO
Cayuga Medreal Center

101 Dates Drive

Ithaca, NY 14850

Dear Ms. Howell:

1am (we are) writing in support of efforts of Registered Nurses at Cayuga Medical Center to
form a unton. As I am (we are) sure you will agree, Registered Nurses are an important professional
component in the care of patients at Cayuga Medical Center. By forming a union, nurses will be gaining
a “voice”, and thus, will be able to assume a proper role in insuring that the highest quality health care 1s
provided to Cayuga Medical Center's patients, and the residents of Tompkins County in general.

1 am (we are) also writing in regard to CSEA’s “Principles of a Fair Campaign”. It is my (our)
understanding that CSEA has asked the hospital to subscribe to its “Principles of a Fair Campaign”, and,
that the hospital has rejected CSEA’s request.

1 (We) would ask that you reconsider your decision regarding the “Principles of a Fair
Campaign”. By subscribing to the “Principles of a Fair Campaign”, the hospital would be guaranteeing a

“Jevel playing field” where nurses will be able to decide for themselves whether or not to unionize, in an
environment free from threats and intimidation.

Finally, ] thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

cc: Cayuga Medical Center Nurses Association/
CSEA, AFSCME, Local 1000

Details!

1. Please send a copy of your letter to: CMC Nurses Association/CSEA
622 W. State St.
Ithaca, NY 14850

2. If your letter is from an organization or union, please use your organization’s letterhead.

3. The sample letter is only a “model”; improvise if you'd like, but stick with the themes.