Protecting Workers' Rights and Patient Care 

Worker protections and patient care ultimately go hand-in-hand. Our members work tirelessly to deliver high quality services despite the many obstacles presented in their respective lines of work. This year, AFSCME highlighted the extraordinary challenges that dialysis clinic nurses face everyday while providing life-saving care. Nurses in this profession faced a serious lack of worker protections which compromised their ability to enjoy dignity on the job. Thanks to the efforts of Senator Ricardo Lara, author of SB 349, commonsense worker protection policies were heard in the California State Legislature to help dialysis clinic nurses receive the basic rights and protections they deserve. 

California has 50,000 dialysis patients per year in clinics with incredibly ambiguous standards for ensuring patient safety. With low staffing standards, patients are endangered because clinics place a premium on getting the patients into the seat before the workstation can be adequately cleaned and prepared for the next patient. As a result, nurses often have to neglect their own personal needs and overall well-being on the job to prioritize patient care under these conditions. In response, UNAC worked with Senator Ricardo Lara to introduce SB 349 which would have established stronger state standards requiring safe staffing levels, an increase in the frequency of Department of Public Health inspections and adequate time between patients to clean and prepare dialysis machines. After multiple policy hearings and conversations with stakeholders, Senator Lara and UNAC decided to continue working on the details of this bill before it advances through the Legislature. The bill is currently held on the Assembly Floor.