single page magazine article titled "It's a contract! Nurses at Sharp HealthCare worked two years to get a union. Then they spent a year bargaining for their first contract. But what a contract!" Article body reads, in part: For Barbara Dent, RN, there is a face on the new contract she helped bargain with Sharp HealthCare. That face belongs to Nita Alcala, RN. Alcala had worked at Sharp for 28 years when she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Following surgery, she lost her voice. As she struggled with chemotherapy and speech therapy, Alcala learned she had been terminated. "It's something that will never sit right with me," says Dent, "and it fired us up even further to get some sort of protection." Job security during a catastrophic illness is part of the new threeyear contract ratified on May 22 by an 82 percent majority vote. Most of the pact is built around the ability of Sharp's nurses to provide quality patient care. That, after all, is the primary reason they organized Sharp Professional Nurses Network (SPNN) — part of AFSCME affiliate United Nurses Associations of California/National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees — three years ago. With over 2,200 workers in the unit, it was the largest single organizing victory among nurses under the National Labor Relations Act. The carefully crafted organizing drive has established a model that can be used to organize nurses in hospitals and health care organizations across the country as AFSCME fights for quality patient care and quality jobs. SLIPPING STANDARDS. "When you think about it, patients go to a hospital because they need nursing care. That's why hospitals exist," says Chris McGovern, RN... From the AFSCME Communications Department records, Walter Reuther Library, Wayne State University. Contact AFSCME Archivist if you need the full article.

Here's a story from @afscme.bsky.social's magazine from that first victory:
#LaborHistory #nurses #SharpNurses #SanDiego #SPNN