Registered nurses from Barton Memorial Hospital to hold public town hall meeting

Registered nurses from Barton Memorial Hospital will be conducting a virtual town hall to update the community on the current status with their contract negotiations with Barton.

The nurses and the hospital have been in contract negotiations for almost three years but things are currently at a standstill ad the contract remains unresolved.

“We are deeply invested in the well-being of our patients and our community. Losing outstanding nurses because of Barton’s failure to provide us with safe working conditions and a sense of being valued and respected will not stand. We care about the people that we care for and we are tired of watching our fellow experienced nurses leave,” said Rachelle Pakes, RN. “Barton says they value their nurses, but their actions do not demonstrate that.”

Who: RNs, concerned community, patients, and families
What: Virtual Town Hall
When: 6:00 p.m. Monday, Feb. 22

How to join the virtual town hall: https://zoom.us/j/97215914020

Dorothy Dean, a Barton RN working in the emergency department, noted that “Nurses have been working under enormous strain, putting their lives and safety in jeopardy, but rather than coming to an agreement that will allow us to feel some stability in our workplace, Barton executives instead bypassed safe staffing and refusing to work with the nurses.”

Barton nurses voted to join the National Nurses United/California Nurses Association in 2017. They began negotiations with Barton in March 2018 on issues concerning unsafe staffing, turnover, and health benefits. Since that time the nurses have had two strikes, once in May 2019 and the other in September of 2019.

The town hall will feature CNA/NNU President Zenei Triunfo-Cortez, RN and Barton nurses, along with firefighters and teachers, former mayor Tom Davis, radio show host Howie Nave, and Fabrizio Sasso, executive director of the Sacramento Labor Council, which represents workers throughout Sacramento and Placer counties.