‘Give Deirdre Her Job Back’

http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/01/18/give-deirdre-her-job-back/

Kevin Byrne, Voice@Work field mobilization/communications specialist, describes how supporters of a nurse fired for seeking to form a union are calling on her employer to reinstate her.



Earlier this month, Deirdre Kirkwood was fired from her job as a nurse at Parkview Community Hospital in Riverside, Calif., while trying to form a union with United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals, an affiliate of AFSCME. Today, Kirkwood and her supporters are holding a press conference at the hospital announcing plans to file charges against the hospital for harassing and illegally monitoring union supporters and calling on the hospital to give Kirkwood her job back. Presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton announced her support of the nurses’ campaign to form a union in a letter released at the news conference.

Kirkwood, who says she loves Parkview, plans to fight for her job and is encouraging her co-workers not to give up on their efforts to form a union.

Please choose courage over fear. The most important thing you can do now is learn more about what it means to form a union, sign a union card and vote ‘Yes’ once the election occurs.

As a nurse in the neonatal intensive care unit, Kirkwood cared for babies who weigh as little as two pounds and who are so sick they can’t breathe on their own. These fragile children are hooked up to highly specialized equipment, tubes and monitors. Nurses such as Kirkwood care for these babies, as well as counsel and educate worried parents.

Kirkwood loved her job but was frustrated by inconsistent policies, haphazard staffing levels and no real voice in improving patient care. So Kirkwood, along with her co-workers, decided to come together and form a union. A highly competent and well-respected nurse, Kirkwood was a key workplace leader, encouraging her co-workers to support the union campaign.

But late on Friday, Jan. 4, the hospital’s human resources manager called Kirkwood into a meeting, presented her with her last paycheck and fired her for “poor morale.” A security guard brought Kirkwood her purse and she was told to leave and not come back. After seven years with a spotless performance record, she was incredulous. Poor morale hardly describes Kirkwood, the same employee who spearheaded the department’s holiday gift-giving to managers.

FULL story at link.