Recommendation to respectfully request City Attorney to draft a resolution in support of a fair collective bargaining contract at Long Beach Community Hospital.
We'll go to 19 category. I'm 19 is communication from the office of Patrick. Council member Patrick O'Donnell. Councilwoman Geri Chavkin. Council Member Stephen Neal with the recommendation to respectfully request the city attorney to draft a resolution in support of the Fair Collective bargaining contract at Long Beach Community Hospital. Scroll down. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And I just want to say how much I appreciate nurses. I spent a great deal of time recently. Memorial Hospital, not too far away, as you're aware. And I could never do the job that you do. I mean, honestly, I'm a teacher and people say, I have patients for you. You guys are remarkable how much care you put into your profession and your patients. I see it truly. So the only before us this evening was brought forward out of concern and support for our nurses at community hospital. We want community hospital to continue to be a happy and successful place to work and be cared for. Thus, we urge a quick resolution on this matter. The City Council. This City Council cares for those. Who care for us. And I know councilmember ships. He had some comments as well. Mr. NEIL. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And I would like to thank my colleague for bringing this forward stand in support and would urge the community hospital to bargain in good faith. EU Council memberships. Everything my colleague said about registered nurses is correct because I'm a registered nurse and I've been trying to tell him for years. So we really this council has had a consistent policy of standing up for working people in our community, and we could do no less for the nurses that are struggling at community hospital to get a fair, equitable and timely contract. So I appreciate my colleagues bringing this forward. And for the purpose of the public so that they know one of the particular interests this council should have in this issue is the city of Long Beach owns the land of community hospital. It was funded by city dollars and for a very small fund was given over to Memorial for operation. We are grateful for the operations that memorial is doing because there's a number of improvements that have been made, but more need to be made. But knowing that and knowing our connection with community hospital, it is imperative that this council stand up for the rights of the the nurses who are again trying to get a fair, equitable and timely contract. So I salute your bravery for being out here tonight and urging a vote to approve this. Okay. Thank you. We do have a motion, correct? Who seconded any. Any member of the public with suggested counts on item 11 maps item 19. Major. Okay. You're all going to be on the clock. If there's a lot of people. I will have the limited, but try to stay within your time, please. Thank you, Mayor. Again, my name is Sonny Zia. I am a resident of Long Beach Second Council District. And I'm here to urge you to support a fair contract for nurses that includes patient safety ratios at all times, benefits and retirement, which has been taken off the table. Respect, including as it pertains to nurses rights to advocate for their patients without fear of retribution, fair wages and other contractual language that limited memorial care are ends have and community hospital. Hospital has refused to honor their sticking with their take away of 6% in wage reduction, which exacerbates current problem of recruitment and retention of experienced staff . As a daughter of a nurse and an active member of this community, I respectfully ask you to please take action in support of a fair contract for nurses at our community hospital. They are the selfless individuals who take care of our patients and need to be treated in an equitable and fair manner and be given the opportunity to provide for the same standard of care as Long Beach Memorial Hospital. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you. Next speaker, please. I'd like to thank all of you for allowing me this time to express my concerns to you. I know I'm not a very eloquent speaker, but I ask that all of you will not let that take away from the importance of the message I'm here to convey to you guys. My name is Nathan Holtzman. I am a registered nurse in the Behavioral Health Department at Community Hospital of Long Beach. And recently there was an occurrence there due to a decision made by the hospital which resulted in, you know, a severe injury. And because of that injury, you know, some of my colleagues, other staff members have had some serious emotional distress. And as you know, being on our own, there's a duty that we have to these patients. And, you know, when something happens, we feel it's. I know I presented a very vague description of their occurrence, and I did. And I did that deliberately. I did that because the problem is beyond this incident. The problem is hospital wide. We are currently fighting for a contract, a fair contract that will let us do what we as nurses have a duty to do, which is advocate for the safety of our patients. I'm here because your community, which receive care from the hospital, which you guys are lending to them. They need your assistance. The community here. And thank you for this opportunity. Thank you. Next speaker, please. My name is Mary Keenan, and I've worked at Long Beach Memorial for 40 years. So to say that I have seen the good, the bad and the ugly is an understatement. What is happening now at Long Beach community is a disgrace and an insult to the nurses and the community they serve. These dedicated professionals should be respected for their skill in caring. Instead, they are being treated like they are not worthy of the same standards that other Long Beach area nurses receive. I can't help but think this is more about union busting than it is about money or finance. This system always has money to support their latest strategy and project. They have shown by their current actions that the nurses and the community they serve are not a priority for memorial care. And I believe you and all of us have a vested interest and responsibility in seeing that our community hospital survives and thrives with a stable , professional nursing staff. So we ask for your support and. Anything you can do to pressure this corporation that. Doesn't really seem to. Value the people that work for it. Thank you. That makes people. Please. Hi. My name is Sharon Cooper. I've been a nurse for five years, all of which at Community Hospital of Long Beach. I'm also a member of the excuse me, chl b bargaining team. Across the table we have been told by memorial the following that our ICU or intensive care unit is not a real ICU. Safe staffing and ratios slow down production and that saving lives has a monetary value based on what people are willing to pay for it. I would like to address these comments by saying that our ICU is indeed a very real ICU, that safe staffing and ratios do slow down production, but they also allow us to provide the best, safest and quality care to you and your family. Keep in mind that since the implementation of ratios in California, outcomes have been better for nurses and patients. Patients are more satisfied in hospitals that meet California nursing nurse staffing mandates whether or not those hospitals are in California. If hospitals are staffed with California ratios, fewer patients would die due to failure to rescue. We've already seen the negative outcomes of the hospital not following the ratios by having nurses cover each other during meals and breaks, leaving them twice the legal, leaving them over twice the legal limit. The very least being the patients and families complaining that during those times there was a delay in care and the most being that being declining patient conditions with a nurse less able to assess and intervene. Despite what memorial care has expressed to us about the value they place on human life. In my humble opinion, even just one life saved is more valuable than any corporate profit. We're fighting for a fair contract that allows us to advocate for our patients, ensure their safety and be respected in the workplace. Thank you. Thank you. Next week, a place like speaker. Good evening. My name is Jackie McCabe. I'm Aunt CHB for 29 years. And like you then to on the marketing team for the last year, our hopes with memorial care was to develop one standard for community. If the patients in Long Beach, the language for memorial care that they're proposing violates our basic rights. One of their proposals is to eliminate our freedom of speech. They don't want us to say disparaging things out loud by coming in. If we accepted that proposal coming here tonight, I could lose my job, which, you know, we find sort of unacceptable. They have proposed that layoff language that allows them to select individuals for layoffs and not do it by seniority, but a more penalizing way. They propose wage reductions and we're already below standard. They initiated a benefit package without bargaining with us to do that. So because of that, today we filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board. I just wanted to share that with you. Thank you. Thank you. Speaker, please. Hello. My name is Premiere Reyes. I'm staff are in at Community Hospital Long Beach and it's been over a year and a half since I last before you. Talking to you about our plight. A community hospital of Long Beach. And today, I would like to talk to you a little bit about the recruitment and retention community hospital. The one thing I do have to say is that memorial is actually getting better in their recruitment because as I sit there and talk to our unit managers, they tell us that there might be five new staff members coming on to staff and unfortunately, only two of them actually end up actually coming to orientation and actually starting in the emergency department. And a lot of the newer staff that's coming there that some of their comments that are that there's no real room for growth. There's no there's no real education department. And so, in turn, some of the employees leave to go go somewhere else, leaving us short staffed. And when we're in short when we're short staffed, it throws off our skills mix. And in turn, they expect to still to take care of the same amount of patients, even though we're don't have enough staff for it. And that contributes to unsafe environment, which in turn doesn't really allow us to deliver the high quality care that our patients deserve in the emergency department when they come for help. So I just want to let you know what's going on. Thank you. Mike Speaker, please. Good evening, council members. My name is Roberta Ranga. I'm a member of the Board of Trustees at Lobby City College. But I'm also the son in law of a patient who has benefited very highly from her, from the nursing and quality industry that is receiving at home. For the last 13 years, I've seen graduating classes of nurses along with City College, and I know that the quality of care that they provide is top notch. I'm sure that when they graduate and are ready to go into the workforce, that they want to be respected with good salary, wages and benefits. I'm looking forward to your unanimous endorsement of this resolution. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Rex Pritchard, president of Long. Beach Firefighters Association. I ask that you support this motion before you. The nurses are vital partners with firefighters in the city in delivering 911 services. We could not do our jobs without them. When we arrive at the hospitals with patient and community hospitals, a vital, vital resource that we use every day and there are definitely needs to stay open and is a much needed resource on the east side of town. Thank you. You're seeing. See, there's no other public speakers. I'm going to go out and turn this back over to the city council. Starting over with Councilmember DeLong. Thank you. I'm curious that the makers of the motion, do you know how much money from WellCare makes at this hospital every year? Do they generate a profit or loss or do we know what their performances? Do you? I think there was a question that comes with the long made to any of the jury. Do you, Mr. DeLong? Yeah. Well, at least in the research that I did, it showed that they lost $9 million last year, and they're on track to lose $8 million this year. So I just think, you know, I do want people to feel that the hospital is is rolling in cash. I think that, you know, they do have some challenges, but they're having a great level of service level and which community what I would offer as a substitute motion, because I think it's important rather than pick one side or the other to encourage both. So what I'd like to offer is to mutually encourage both parties to bargain in good faith for an agreement that will be good for the patients, the employees, the hospitals and the community. Okay. I don't I don't hear a second on that. Okay. There's no second. Can you comment on the motion from many council members? There's a motion on the floor. Kate, there's a message on offer. Please cast your votes. Yeah. I mean. Yes, but I can't think you're going to. Motion carry seven votes. Yes. One vote no. Okay. Moving on now to the rest of the agenda. We're going to go back to the regular agenda. So we're back to Mr. Clark, I believe, to number 11.