The biggest reason my colleagues and I voted to leave UNAC and join NUHW was that UNAC was not responsive to us. Nurses and physical therapists who have been working at our hospital for 20 to 30 years would tell me that they couldn’t get answers from UNAC and they often didn’t even know who to go to try to get answers.
I actually had a UNAC representative that was working on my unit, and I had no idea. It was actually NUHW who told me that that person was supposed to be supporting me. NUHW was my first example of a union that would actually answer my phone calls, show up, and help me.
One of our biggest issues with all of our poor working conditions under UNAC is how many nurses leave. We have so much turnover. And such a high percentage of nurses that have only been nurses for five years or less because people don’t want to stay.
Under UNAC, because they weren’t pushing to make changes for appropriate staffing and upholding California ratio laws, the only thing that they did for nurses who were out of ratios was object to the staffing to protect our license. Where’s the plan?
Under UNAC, I can’t say that It’s going to be easy. I can’t say that you’re going to get everything that you want. I can tell you that we were represented by UNAC for over two decades, they only let people down.
MAKENNA MUSSON
Registered Nurse, Fountain Valley Regional Hospital