Service & Solidarity Spotlight: Adventist Health St. Helena Nurses Join California Nurses Association

Working people across the United States regularly step up to help out our friends, neighbors and communities during these trying times. In our Service & Solidarity Spotlight series, we’ll showcase one of these stories every day. Here’s today’s story.

Registered nurses (RNs) at Adventist Health St. Helena voted last week to form a union with the California Nurses Association (CNA), an affiliate of National Nurses United (NNU).

The 250 newly minted union members won their National Labor Relations Board election in a landslide victory. RNs report that a primary motivator for organizing was their need to have a strong voice on the job to help recruit and retain experienced nurses in order to ensure quality patient care.

“The nurses and patients of St. Helena are my community,” said Mark Gonzalez, an RN in the intensive care unit. “We need a union so we have a voice to advocate for our patients and to ensure that Adventist administration invests its profits back into our hospital. We are only asking for what’s right, like safe staffing and adequate supplies and equipment. Our patients depend on it.”