San Jo Lo Down

Welcome back and thank you for being a part of the Lo Down! In this episode, we meet with long-time registered nurses Susie York and Alyssa Dulong who work right here in San Jose at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center. We speak with them about the people and experiences that inspired them into their profession, their appreciation for and challenges of working in Silicon Valley, and the importance of being in a union. Alyssa and Susie describe their spectrum of emotions and experiences related to unionizing, striking, and negotiating, as well as  the day-to-day roller-coaster of the type of work they do. They also highlight the reality of the career of nursing- specifically during the height of the COVID 19 pandemic which included a shortage of staff, resources, space, time, and basic safety equipment.

Here at the Lo Down, we were shocked to hear details about the pressures nurses face from their higher ups, the county, their colleagues, and more than often, themselves. We stand by our nurses and we appreciate all of the work that they do for the individual and the community. We are proud to share their successes with you during our updates section towards the end of the episode, so please stay tuned! We hope you enjoy this fun, engaging, informative, and heartfelt piece!

Please feel free to like, share, and follow us on the Gram @Sanjo_lodown and consider donating to our show through the San Jo Lo Down Website https://www.sanjolodown.com. We appreciate you and look forward to hearing from you soon!

What is San Jo Lo Down?

The San Jo Lo Down is San Jose’s first podcast on working class culture, politics, and life–at work, at home, and at play. SJLD is a show about and for the incredible, diverse, talented, inspiring working people of our communities. Though we’ll have content on local music, politics, art, night life, events, and more, the podcast will feature the lives and perspectives of people like you, without whom San Jose would grind to a halt.

Armaline:

What's good, everyone? My name is Bill Armelein, host of the Sanjo Lowdown, a podcast about the lives, culture, and politics of the incredibly diverse working class of San Jose and Silicon Valley. To find out more on our show, our crew, or to check out additional episodes and exclusive content, you can go to our website at www.sanjolodown.com. That's www.sanj0l0d0wn.com. And please follow us on Instagram at Sanjo Lowdown or at s a n j o underscore l o d o w n for updates and to provide feedback or show ideas.

Armaline:

We'd love to hear from you. We'd love to hear from our audience. And with that, let's get to the show and get you to the lowdown.

Susie:

So I think assault and trying to get that kind of language to protect us from that, and and their their response to that was, well, we already have policies for that, and I was handed this really big binder.

Armaline:

You protect yourself with the binder. Right?

Susie:

Right. So we made a joke about that. It's funny that you bring that up

Susie:

because I

Susie:

said that I was gonna try to pin it to me or something and take it in.

Armaline:

Sorry. I used to get that Spanish. So I'm really excited about today's interview. Anyone who's ever been in the hospital or had a surgery or been really sick before knows that the people that make the difference or whether or not you're gonna have a good time or a shitty time are gonna be the nurses and orderlies and other other health care workers. I mean, yeah, the doctors are great, the surgeons are great, really happy for their work.

Armaline:

But again, the people that are actually taking care of you are the really hardworking nurses and orderlies that are doing all of that day to day care, cleaning up, adding new equipment, making sure your meds are there, making sure you get get your pain meds on time, all that kind of stuff. And if you've been paying attention to the news, you know that our health care workers have really been going to battle over their working conditions and over their pay. And these are folks that during COVID, we all were kind of enforced to admit were absolutely essential for our daily life. So, again, we at San Jo Lowdown knew that one of our episodes had to be to sit down with some of these nurses that populate our hospitals, help them to run, help to keep us all healthy and well from the day to day, and that we're absolutely critical in getting us through the pandemic. So for today's episode, I wanna give a little bit of background on what's going on in the health care industry, not to bore you in the audience, but so we all understand kinda what's going on and why we're sitting down with who we invited for today.

Armaline:

So the Registered Nurses Professional Association or the RNPA represents over 3,000 nurses who work in Santa Clara County's 3 public hospitals. And if you live here, you know that that's Valley Medical Center, O'Connor, and Saint Louis. In April of this year, the nurses went on a three day strike when the union and county hit an impasse in contract negotiations over issues of salary, scheduling, and work conditions. The county offered, at first, a 10.5% raise over three and a half years. This was well short of the 15% demanded by the RNPA.

Armaline:

Nurses also demanded better working conditions and not to be bounced around at different hospital sites from day to day during their shifts. The county claims to have spent over $20,000,000 on a thousand travel nurses to cover the strike period, but still denied the RNPA's demands. However, by the April, the nurses threatened to go back on strike, but they didn't have to. By May, they were able to reach a tentative agreement with the county in negotiations. For today's episode, we'll speak with two leaders of the RNPA about the conditions of our county hospitals that treat our working class communities and about their successful fight for a fair contract with Santa Clara County.

Armaline:

Their strike comes amidst a larger labor movement in California health care. In 2023, over 75,000 unionized health care workers with Kaiser Permanente staged staged the largest strike in the healthcare sector in all of US history, winning what the Biden administration called a quote historic contract. At the April, the frontline physicians of Kaiser Permanente in Northern California announced they would join the committee of interns and residents as part of the Service Employees International Union or SEIU. This tracks with a broader pattern of doctors unionizing across the country for the first time in US history. Y'all, if you didn't know, doctors do not unionize in this country.

Armaline:

This is an absolutely new thing. And it's happening in the face of them being reduced to typical wage workers by a healthcare system increasingly corporatized and financialized. In other words, the system's run by the profit motives of investors and companies and not by the actual needs of the community for public health. Doctors haven't been down with that, and they haven't been down with what we'll call their proletarianization. Right?

Armaline:

Getting all nerd on us, meaning that they're becoming working class people like the rest of us. Further, this is occurring at a time when the county hospital system is experiencing significant strain. Hospital administrators have warned that Valley Medical Center is already running at capacity, and this may worsen if Regional Medical Center, a private hospital that's on the East Side, closes their trauma center. This is the only trauma center currently serving the very, very populated and kind of traffic trapped East Side Of San Jose. We asked our guests about the consequences of losing this critical trauma center and about the conditions and future of public health care in our region.

Armaline:

So let's get into it. So welcome to the San Jo Lowdown.

susie:

Thanks for having us. Yes.

Armaline:

Of course. Of course. Let's start off. Why don't you introduce yourselves to our audience quickly?

Susie:

You wanna start or I'll start?

susie:

Go ahead.

Susie:

So my name is Susie, and I work at Valley Medical Center. I've been a nurse for eight years now, and I am the president of our union called RMPA.

Armaline:

Beautiful.

susie:

Hello, everyone. And my name is Alyssa. I am a nurse at VNC as well, and I work in the burn center. I've been there for eleven years, and, I started RMPA started RMPA. I started with RMPA, last year as the secretary, and now I am in the treasurer position position.

Armaline:

Why did either of you decide to join sort of the executive leadership of the union?

Susie:

So I have a little bit of a story.

Armaline:

Go for it.

Susie:

So, when I first started working at, Valley Medical Center, I kinda wanna know the roles of because I was getting reprimanded for calling in sick too much.

Armaline:

Mhmm. So

Susie:

I said, well, where's the role on that? Like, how many times can you call in sick in a month, like, you know, coming from another job that's they would tell us. Right? And you have a manual. And so then they said, oh, you have a union.

Susie:

And I'm like, union? What's this business about? Oh, it's that one thing that I said, no. I don't wanna sign up for it because it feels like a cult, and then they made me sign up. Yes.

Susie:

So I was already part of the union without even realizing I was part of the union. Then a coworker gave me a contract, and then this one nurse would come down and say, hey. Who wants to be a unit rep? And then I kinda got voluntold to do it. As the interview will continue, you'll notice I'm, like, very outspoken.

Susie:

I'm the loud one. I'm the one who creates problems problems, right, for management on the unit. And so, it took about a year and a half for our former president and our vice president now to get me to join, executive leadership, to be on the board is what we call it. And I started out as a negotiator. So I was a negotiator for almost two years.

Susie:

Yeah. But I was actually catapulted into the president role.

susie:

Mhmm.

Susie:

Some unfortunate circumstances came up that our former president had to step away. He was having some mental health issues and, being the senior person on the board with, the others two senior people not being able to take on the president role, here I am. And so, it's been quite a journey and a lot of lessons learned.

Armaline:

Right on.

Susie:

But I think I've embraced it, and I'm trying to do the best that I can. And we're leading almost 4,000 nurses. And,

Armaline:

That's amazing.

Susie:

It's it's hard it's hard work.

Armaline:

That's amazing.

Susie:

But but there are some wins. There there really is.

Armaline:

Well, I'm excited to get to some of those wins. Alyssa, how about you? What what made you decide to join the leadership of the union?

susie:

Well, I've always been with the union. I was with SEIU before I became a nurse and

Armaline:

then with

susie:

RMPA. But, there was an incident that happened on my unit where it really made me upset, and I fought back against management for it, and we won. So, What what

Armaline:

was the incident, if you don't mind me asking?

susie:

Well, I was I was I like Susie. I do things that you're not supposed to do. Yeah. Well, I came in five minutes late, and it had been a repetitive for a couple times. And so they said, here's the policy on your attendance.

susie:

And I said, uh-huh. But my my unit is special because we have to change into, a uniform that's supplied by the county Sure. Just to make sure that we don't transfer any, you know, germs onto patient when we're working.

Armaline:

Because of the burn unit. Right?

susie:

Because of the

Armaline:

burn. Burn patients are so sensitive to infection. Correct?

susie:

Because they don't have the skin to protect them like everybody else. So in order to work on the unit, you have to go in and change into their special uniform

Armaline:

Sure.

susie:

Before you can go, work. So, I said, well, I have to go change, and that takes time. And they said, you well, you have to come in early then. And I said, no. I don't have to come in early when it's required by my employer.

Armaline:

Sure.

susie:

So then they went and pulled a whole bunch of policies. But then what happened was they saw that the OR, the mother baby unit, the labor and delivery unit, and I think there was one more unit. There was four units total that all had the same situation where they had to go and change.

Armaline:

And

susie:

they were given extra five minutes. So, therefore, we were given an extra five minutes.

Armaline:

There you

susie:

go. So they can't dock us for requiring us to, change before work.

Armaline:

That makes sense. And I think that's a perfect example of the kind of, you know, workplace environment issues that, you know, union can be very effective at dealing with. Right? Right. But I think that's that that's awesome.

Armaline:

Where are the two of you from originally?

Susie:

So I was born in Mexico in the state of Oaxaca. I'm very proud of that.

Armaline:

Right on.

Susie:

The my my mom's Mexican. My dad's Caucasian, but I was raised here in in San Jose, all my life.

Armaline:

Oh, so you're born and raised in San Jose. We're about to

Susie:

Born in Mexico, raised

Armaline:

in San Jose. Mexico and raised in San Jose. Where in San Jose did you grow up?

Susie:

So I grew up for, what was it, maybe thirty two years or twenty eight years on I say the North Side, but it's Central San Jose on 20 First Empire. Yeah. Very, very proud of my neighborhood.

susie:

Yeah.

Susie:

So I said this is my hood. I tell Alyssa, I feel comfortable being around here, and this is where I grew up. I studied at, you know, at Martin Luther King Junior Library, and this is my area.

Armaline:

No bullshit. One of my best friends lives on that block. Lives on 20 First And Empire. Like

Susie:

I probably know that. Quarter.

Armaline:

Yeah. So we can talk after. Yeah. But but great. That's great.

Armaline:

Alyssa, where are you from, and where do you stay now?

susie:

Well, I was born in Vietnam, in Saigon, Vietnam, and then came over to America. I lived in a couple different places when we came to America. I was only eight months old when when I arrived here, But we lived in Albuquerque and Houston and then came to San Jose, actually Milpitas, and I graduated from Milpitas High before coming into San Jose State.

Armaline:

Oh, right. Oh, so you're a San Jose State alum?

susie:

Yeah. That's what

Armaline:

I wanna hear, fam.

Susie:

So I'm here. Spartans.

susie:

Let's go Spartans.

Armaline:

We got alum in the house. That's great. So why did your family end up, finally kinda landing in San Jose?

susie:

Well, my dad said, where do you wanna go to college? And I said, California. And so he, talked to my sister who lives in Milpitas. My sister said, if you wanna save some money, you gotta have residency first

Armaline:

Sure.

susie:

Before you go to college. So I came here my junior year so that I could be here for my after my junior year so I could be here for my entire senior year, which I thought was the best thing financially. It was, but not the greatest thing for a high school student because then you lose all your friends.

Armaline:

Sure.

susie:

You don't really know anybody when you're graduating. So that that part was not the smart part. But Did you

Armaline:

make make up for it in college?

susie:

No. No. I did it. It was a bit awkward, and I kinda did my own thing, got into my, I just I I didn't fit in right away, so I ended up doing the JC route, which I went to every JC in the area. And then finally, I graduated from Evergreen and then did the bridge program to San Jose State.

Armaline:

But but well, I'm glad we eventually had you

susie:

at San Jose State.

Armaline:

That makes me that makes me happy. Okay. Well, thank you so much for that. It's it's good to get to know a little bit more about y'all. I wanna really get into the the topic of the day.

Armaline:

However, before doing that, I think it's important to ask, like, what drew you to your profession and what keeps you in your profession?

Susie:

I think that since I was little, I've always, wanted to do something medical, but my grandma and my aunt said I was very nosy. And so I you know, in Spanish, chismosa.

Armaline:

Mhmm.

Susie:

So I was always out wanting to that hear the ambulance, well, what's wrong with that person? Always wanting to how you know, you're hurt. Blood didn't gross me out. And and, you know, as I got older, that passion was still there, but, you know, different family members trying to push you in different directions. Like an uncle saying, no.

Susie:

Go into economics. Got an f in that class. Go to science. I get an a. Right?

Susie:

So you already know where you need to be. Yeah. Like, it's in your soul.

Armaline:

Yeah.

Susie:

I love community. And so my my aunt so my legal name's Susan, and I was named after her, and she ended up getting ovarian cancer.

Armaline:

Sorry to hear that.

Susie:

And, because of her, one day, just late night talks visiting her at the hospital, and she said, you need to be a nurse. And I gave her, like, lame excuses, like, but I don't wanna put my hair up, and I'm not good at math. And she's like, you have got to be kidding me. And so she would ask the nurses questions. And, look at that, nurse doesn't have her hair up.

Susie:

Or, hey. How much math do you do? None. It's most of it's all done for you already. You have other nurses to help you.

Susie:

She's like, what's your excuse now? And so, she gifted me some money for nursing school, and I made a promise to her because she was gonna pass away that I I would if I couldn't get into nursing school, I wouldn't use that money until I did. And it took about three years, and I got into Evergreen. And, I fulfilled that dream. And then like Alyssa, I came to San Jose State to get my bachelor's in nursing.

Susie:

So because of her and and, I did my clinicals at Valley Medical Center, some of them. And I said, it's wild here, and I like it. And I wanna work here, and it's the rainbow of community. And this is this is where I wanna be.

Armaline:

Right on. It's beautiful.

Susie:

Yeah. That's what drew me in. Yeah.

Armaline:

How about you, Alyssa?

susie:

I'm similar. Not not quite as nosy. But when I was, dealing with some family, health things. My dad had Alzheimer's.

Armaline:

Mhmm.

susie:

And I was I was still, what, like, 18 at the time. He had, like, many, many years of, the illness progressing from where he was able to walk and then get stuck, into a nursing home that had was a locked facility so that he couldn't just walk out onto the

Susie:

street. Sure.

susie:

And then he became wheelchair bound and bed bound, and I watched the whole thing. And it was just terrible to see. But then, you know, there were some nurses that were really great Mhmm. And still gave us hope and still gave us, a sense of, dignity while he was ill. And so I thought that's what I that's what I need to be.

susie:

I wanna I wanna be like her.

Armaline:

Yeah. It's interesting that both of you had considerable sort of family influences, right, it sounds like, which is really cool. And I'm sure your families are happy that you followed through with your profession. Yeah?

Susie:

Oh. Yeah. For sure. My mom, especially. So and my dad my dad's a recovering, drug user, and so twenty five years now or so.

Susie:

So proud moments for sure.

Armaline:

Props to him. Yeah. Props him for that. Yes, sir. Props him for ra raising a solid daughter as well.

Armaline:

Right?

Susie:

Yeah.

Armaline:

So this is great, and thank you so much for sharing that about your background. It's really helpful, I think, for us to get to know you a little bit better. If you don't mind, I'm gonna move to sort of the topic of the day. So I'm asking this question from, like, a big picture perspective for members of the community that maybe have not been following the stories of our, local public, sort of health care institutions. Right?

Armaline:

And as we all know, there's been quite a bit of crisis certainly since COVID, in those institutions that, again, tie into your struggle as a labor struggle as well. But I wanna start from, like, a big picture perspective. So how would you explain the challenges faced by those in our public health care facilities for those that really haven't been following what's going on in the news. Like, what are the challenging conditions right now in our county facilities, and and why are we seeing so much strife? You know?

Armaline:

So there's not just been your labor action, but there's been the real famous Kaiser labor action more, you know, a couple years back. The even the physicians at Kaiser have now unionized, which is I mean, this is happening all over the country, but that is a very new thing, right, where, doctors now for the first time are unionizing because they're realizing that they're getting screwed over by corporations and private equity buying up all of essentially American health care. And now instead of them being, like, the really privileged, highly paid doctor, they're a worker b like everybody else. Right? And so we have all of these kind of things going on.

Armaline:

I I just wonder how you would explain sort of the big picture sort of state of things in our county, maybe to someone that hasn't been really following the issue.

Susie:

I guess I would need more of an example because what comes to my mind and and what we face, right, because it's working conditions because that's one of the reasons

Armaline:

Sure.

Susie:

Why you would join a union and have a union because that's what we protect is working conditions, your your your hours, and whatnot. For us, it's like the tug and pull of upper management, of the directors, of of the James Williams of the world, of the CEOs, and and just the mismanagement of, I guess, for us, one of I don't know if this is what you're you're aiming for. But That's

Armaline:

perfect.

Susie:

But it was like the the what people don't know is that VMC was just VMC, and then St. Louis Hospital and O'Connor were going were bank going bankrupt or were bankrupt.

Armaline:

Exactly.

Susie:

And then the county bought those. On top of the county already owning 12 clinics, already dealing with custody. So you have main jail. You have the psych the psych side. You have, the ranches for for juvenile and not having this, quote, unquote, flawless integration as our, CEO for the hospital, Paul would say, is a big failure in the system because you have different policies at different hospitals.

Susie:

And that was one of our main issues that we will get into about why one of the reasons of why we went on strike and, you know, trying to transplant nurses from one facility to another to to save money, right, to save on the budget and and taking us and just trying to pluck us from one area like a a flower and trying to grow us somewhere else is just not reasonable. And so I think that's one of the main issues that we have is that, currently, they're just trying to push us to the brink. They are trying to manipulate our, you know, patient ratios, and that's, California state law title 22. But they're figuring out ways that, hey. Maybe we could do it this way where we can manipulate what we call the acuity, which is, it's like a number system of how sick you are, four being the worst and one being not so sick.

Susie:

You could walk around. Maybe you have a mild infection, but you need IV antibiotics.

Armaline:

Sure.

Susie:

And so for the way that I see it is is that's the biggest issue that I think where that's happening with a couple other things. But for me, that's the biggest issue is just having there's just such a disconnection with management and and and directors. It's it's sad to me.

Armaline:

Well, that's actually a great opening. So why don't we just go there? You know? I mean, so I think that helps people to understand so that there's it sounds to me like there are some financial strain, right, on this full county system, and I appreciate it's really wonderful that you laid that out the way that you do because I don't know that many of our audience members might not realize that this sort of public, health infrastructure reaches not just into the the few county hospitals that we know about, but also fully into the criminal justice system and the jail system and everything else. And I want our audience members to think for a moment.

Armaline:

Like, again, it's through that criminal justice system that we've chosen to deal with addiction, homelessness, and all of these other issues because our county, despite all of our calls to do so, is still dead set on building jails instead of mental health institutions. Right? And so as a result, it's our nurses, it's our medical health care facilities that are, as you said, not so, smoothly, forced to take on all of these populations of folks and and work with that and and try and make all that happen. And as a result, it's had some, you know, work environment, workload, and other issues for you all is what I'm hearing. So why don't we get into that?

Armaline:

So, talk let's talk a little bit about, what was happening, before you all, decided on your your strike action, sort of what led to it, and and, you know, why did you all end up going on strike at the end of the day?

susie:

Well, there were a lot of issues. We were sitting in a room with the other side, and that was like a panel of 10 people on their side.

Armaline:

That's a nice way of saying management. Well, that's

susie:

my nice yes. Yeah.

Armaline:

You're being very kind. I appreciate it.

susie:

The nicest way I could say it. And then there was our side, which also had, 10 members, and we just sat there week after week doing the same thing, and it was not getting anywhere. And it was very frustrating when you are ready to talk, you're ready to solve problems. And what we got in response was, oh, we're not interested in that. That doesn't work for us.

Armaline:

So what were the demands that you were bringing forward that they just weren't trying to hear or weren't willing to address?

susie:

Safety. That was the big one.

Armaline:

Safety for nurses, for you.

Susie:

Putting language about safety for the nurses.

Armaline:

Could you give an example? Again, like, for an audience member that might not know what that actually means. Just give a, for instance, like, what are the kinds of things that are unsafe that you were trying to stop?

Susie:

Assaults on nurses.

Armaline:

That's a pretty good one.

Susie:

I don't mind verbal. That's fine. But, you know, a lot of, nurses are are we're smaller, right, on the smaller size. We're still trying to get more, you know, people who identify as males into into our, what do you call it, the nursing careers

Armaline:

Profession. Yeah.

Susie:

Profession. So I think assault and trying to get that kind of language to protect us from that. And and their their response to that was, well, we already have policies for that, and I was handed this really big binder.

Armaline:

You protect yourself with the binder. Right? Right.

Susie:

So we made a joke about that. It's funny that you bring that up because I said that I was gonna try to pin it to me or something and take it in. And we actually did. We made a bunch of jokes about this binder because that director who gave us that binder is not very helpful. And there was only about two sentences about safety for nurses, and it had to do with OSHA.

Susie:

But what nurse is gonna go out of the way after an eight, ten, twelve hour shift, even sometimes sixteen hour shift to file a report to OSHA. Who's gonna do that? Nobody.

Armaline:

Right.

Susie:

So just having those guidelines and that language in there to keep them accountable. And they don't want to do that because if they don't abide by the contract, we could do something called a grievance

Armaline:

Mhmm.

susie:

And

Susie:

say, hey. You didn't do this, and this is why you didn't do it. And now we need some kind of solution. And so they were very hesitant to do that, and we actually actually got that language because of a mediator. So it wasn't when we were across the table singing kumbaya, it was that we were on the verge of getting a divorce and come here comes the mediator

Armaline:

Right on.

Susie:

To say, you guys need to work with them, the union, because they're trying to work with you.

Armaline:

Right on.

Susie:

So that's all that came about.

Armaline:

So one of the big issues was safety. What were some of the other sticking points in terms of the negotiation that you ended up having to fight for?

Susie:

They wanted like I said before, they wanted to be able to move a nurse from one hospital to the other, from one clinic to the other. And the reason I wanted to do that is because they were claiming that there's certain units in certain hospitals that have a lower that go down in census, meaning the patient the patient, admissions go down.

Armaline:

Sure.

Susie:

So, like, say, for a unit that has could go up to 50 patients, they only have, like, twenty five thirty. So for the week, they wanna move Alyssa to O'Connor. They technically couldn't do that because I don't have a burn center or O'Connor, but

Armaline:

they they be the new one.

Susie:

If they did. Yeah.

Armaline:

The new one person burn center.

Susie:

So they wanted to do that, and our explanation was that it's very unsafe because, a, the policies are different. It's not, you know, enterprise wide is what we call it now. And so that was a big sticking point for not just the the board members, but so for our members because we took it to a vote, like, if that was important. Our other one was taking away our the way that we fought for acuity, and I don't know if you wanna go into that more. You could probably explain it better than I can.

susie:

So like Cece was talking about, that's our our scoring system for each patient to see how, much attention and service we need to provide to that those patients because they're sicker or they're not as sick.

Armaline:

Sure.

susie:

So when we have a disagreement, regarding the acuity, meaning, like, I am bedside and I see my patient and my patients is going through, psychotic episode and needs my attention all the time and I can't leave to take care of my other patients, then I'm gonna score him or her as a, as a level four because I need to be there all the time. But then what happens if there's, like, a supervisor sitting behind a desk who never sees these patient? And based on what I was charting, they're like, no. That really doesn't sound like a four. Don't you think you wanna change it to, like, a three?

susie:

Jesus. So if I were to listen because I'm not strong enough as a nurse to say no, then I change that to a three. And guess what? I still need to have, like, four other patients if I'm on a med surg floor. In ICU, I would only have one.

susie:

But if that were the case, then you don't need as many nurses. Right?

Armaline:

Sure.

susie:

So you can you can run that unit with, let's say, eight nurses instead of 10 nurses if everybody's acuity is less.

Armaline:

But I'm going to imagine that is not safe for patients.

susie:

No. And it's not safe for our license either.

Armaline:

Right. Right. And I I hope that I mean, that's that's really becoming clear to me in this conversation. You know, I think when a lot of people think about, you know, union actions and strikes and things like that, people always say, you know, they're just trying to get paid. They're just trying to get money, which is fair.

Armaline:

Like, you should strike for money. You should be paid well, essentially, if you're essential workers that we actually need in order to survive as a society. Right? And you should be paid and paid well. But what I'm hearing from you all that this is as much about the patients in your care as it even is about you and your job, which makes me appreciate you even that much more, frankly.

Armaline:

But I think it's really important for our audience to understand that, like, when you hear about these strikes, it sounds like you're as you're fighting as much for us. You know, those of us that will be in your hospitals. I mean, my my foster daughter gave birth in O'Connor. You know what I mean? I you know, we, you know, we use these places, and I'm a I'm a fully full tenured professor.

Armaline:

You know what I'm saying? So, you know, I I appreciate that. That that comes very clear even in the sincerity as as you talk about it, and I I appreciate that. So these are all very serious issues, for you, for your patients, for the hospital. How did you all finally decide we gotta strike?

Armaline:

How did that decision come about? That he's like, we gotta we gotta fully take action. It's time to to do what we need to do.

susie:

I think it came to a crossroads because we were talking to the other side, but there was no movement. And then the all the members, all the nurses were so angry that they wanted some kind of action. And we did take a survey to ask them what kind of action they wanted to take and how long. And so we had that in our back pocket, and then that's when, you know, we decided Susie made the, the final decision as to when and where that was gonna happen.

Armaline:

So you were the shot caller?

Susie:

Oh, gosh. Yeah. What a day. What a day and what a night. Yeah.

Armaline:

Tell me about it.

Susie:

So, well, what had happened was being sequestered so many times, and I caught sequestered because that's what it felt like. And Yeah. It May, the other person that was, going to be here, me, May, and Alyssa, we

Armaline:

Mae is your vice president?

Susie:

The vice president. Apologies. Yeah. On. And we met at what did we meet at?

Susie:

The the San Jose Police Department Union? Is that where we met?

susie:

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Susie:

So we met and because I wanna bring this story up because I think it's important to show, like, what goes into

susie:

But tell them why we're there. It was a neutral, location.

Susie:

Oh, yes. So they didn't so they want they didn't wanna come to our union because I had put it out there that they were gonna come, and then some members came with signs, and they wanted to Welcome them. They wanted to welcome, our our CNE, our chief nursing executive, and our Sure. CEO and, David.

Armaline:

They should.

Susie:

And they didn't wanna be welcomed, so we had to find a a neutral place to be sequestered to. And, we spent three hours on the same topic, which was temporarily reassigning nurses to other hospitals when there's low census.

Armaline:

Mhmm.

Susie:

That's what the whole conversation after about an hour and a half, we went on a caucus well, many caucuses, but which is where you go and you separate and talk.

Armaline:

Yeah. It's like, caucus is like breakout sessions during these negotiations. Yeah.

Susie:

Yeah. I know it's a weird word. No. It's okay. Chuckle.

Susie:

I looked at Alyssa and May and said, I'm done. And I literally turned my body, and I was like, you guys could talk because I've I've had enough, and this isn't getting anywhere. And I I

Armaline:

There you go.

Susie:

Was just waving the white flag and said, let's move on. So, that that happened. It finished. And then we sent out with our chief negotiator and our attorney, we sent out a mediator's proposal to the membership, and they had twenty four hours to vote. And that was the most participation that I've seen in a very, very long time.

Susie:

Over 2,000 nurses voted. It's it's hard sometimes. Like, over 2,600 nurses. Oh, 2,600. Apologies.

Armaline:

Wow.

Susie:

Sometimes it's hard to get nurses to participate. It's like herding cats. But that went that went over well. And then I gathered everyone around, and I said, I think it's time that we go ahead and we call for a strike.

Armaline:

And what was their what was their response? Were they with you?

Susie:

Oh, yeah. The the members were the the members had

Armaline:

been not need convincing.

Susie:

Yeah. The members had been, you know, clamoring for a strike, and let's, you know, show them what it's all about. But, you know, strategic planning goes into that. And and there's legalities of an unfair labor practice strike and in economic, and you have more free range when you go on an unfair labor practice strike. We had to make sure we filed all of those through the courts.

Susie:

Sure. And you have to give a ten day notice. And so there's, you know, procedures that go into that. And, you know, the members have to be educated on that, but they were still very excited and pumped up and hurry up and what's taking you so long. And so

Armaline:

That's cool. So it sounds like you had a a activated membership. Right? Like, they were behind you.

Susie:

100%. Yeah. I heard that during the strike, it it was like, even now, Cece, that was so much fun. I was like, you're so lucky because I ended up getting sick. I did go the first day, but I was miserable.

Susie:

And there it was like community, and there was potlucks, and I think somebody barbecued.

susie:

And Everybody put each unit kinda hung around each other, and, they had their own tents, and they had their own food. Didn't even matter that it was raining, pouring rain with wind blowing, and the rain was coming in sideways on the

Armaline:

third day. Dedication. Yeah.

susie:

They they all came out. They all showed up, and they were very united.

Susie:

All three hospitals, St. Louis, O'Connor, and BMC. Everyone showed up, and I'm I'm just so proud of our members.

Armaline:

And how how long was the strike action?

Susie:

Three days.

Armaline:

Three days?

Susie:

Yeah.

Armaline:

So how did you get from that to, your well, so as far as I understand it, you've reached a a negotiated what's the status of the agreement at this point before I speak ahead of term?

susie:

Tentative agreement.

Armaline:

So your tentative agreement's level still. So TA. Right?

susie:

TA.

Armaline:

So are you allowed to speak about the TA?

Susie:

We are. I believe so. It went through its first reading today at the board of supervisors.

Armaline:

Oh, then, yeah, you're fine.

Susie:

That I haven't even looked up yet.

Armaline:

If it was right at the BOS, then it's then it's it's public.

Susie:

Today was the first reading.

Armaline:

I wasn't sure, so I wanted to make sure before I ask. So if you wouldn't mind, just let us know, like, how how did you, reach the tentative agreement, and what are the feelings around the tentative agreement? How did it turn out? What's the feelings of membership about where you ended up? Happy with it?

Armaline:

Not happy with it?

susie:

A majority, very happy with it, I would say. Of course, you know, you can't please everybody. So there's still gonna be some people that, hoped and wished for more. Mhmm. And they wanted to hold out for more.

susie:

But, you know, as a union, we have to look at everybody and what's in the best interest of all of our members and not just a very small section of them. So, yeah, that's that's, my feel of it. But how did we get there? It was it was processed. Susie had a meeting with the CEO and based on what she

Armaline:

This is following the strike action.

susie:

This is following the strike action. And then, but that meeting was a scheduled meeting. It wasn't like somebody called.

Susie:

We had two meetings. I we had one, like, at the April, and then we had another one almost, like, two weeks later in May. So there are scheduled monthly meetings, but, I was pretty upset at that point. So I came in very rough. And I said, I don't want to waste your time, and I'm sure you don't wanna waste our time.

Susie:

And I got straight to the point. And

Armaline:

There you go.

Susie:

You know, we had said at a previous board, at public comment at another board of supervisor meeting that further action would take another labor action would take place, you know, if we couldn't come to an agreement. And I looked right at James when I said that. And so I think when we had our second meeting, we were able to, figure things out and try to come to an agreement. And he in that second to last meeting so it was, like, this in May, he had said that he would come to our mediation, that he would be there. And I said I'd greatly appreciate that because I don't think we're having movement, and I feel that your team is not listening to us.

Susie:

They so first time ever that the county from I'm aware of for for the nurses, they have an attorney on their side.

Armaline:

Mhmm.

susie:

And

Susie:

it just so happened that we got an attorney for for our side. But that's never happened before. It's usually, like, a labor relation person who's the main person, but this time, they were the cochair. Mhmm. And so we don't really know why they hired an attorney this go around.

Susie:

So I had just told James that we need to figure something out because this whole floating is just not gonna work for us, and that's the sticking point. We need to move past this. And like Alyssa said, we can't make everyone happy with the financial part of it. We were told by the board of supervisors that if we went on strike, they would stick to the 10 and a half that was on the table at that time. Well, that was public knowledge in February.

Susie:

And that's why we came to the agreement of a four year term, because if you think about it, seven months has already passed. But I think the majority of the members are happy. I'm I'm content.

Armaline:

So at the end of the day, what did you get?

Susie:

So we got, like, 15 over four. 15 percent over four years.

Armaline:

There you go.

Susie:

No floating to the other hospitals.

susie:

That was the big one.

Armaline:

Yeah. It sounds like y'all was a big win right there.

Susie:

Yeah. It really it really was, and I think it was. And we also got, like, the safety language for, you know, violence prevention. What am I missing?

susie:

We have a new way that we can dispute acuity.

Susie:

Oh, yeah. Through a third party entity.

Armaline:

Mhmm. And not, again, how to do with the the sort of grading of level of need for the patient. Right?

susie:

Right. Right.

Susie:

Right. Yeah. Because manage it management usually disagrees. Like, if we say, oh, no. Like, for example, like, I'm a med surg nurse.

Susie:

Right?

Armaline:

Mhmm.

Susie:

So if you're not on a heart monitor and I'm just taking care of, like, med surg regular med surg patient, I could take up to five because that's that's title 22. That's the law. Right? But there are times where there are med surg patients who are not telemetry, who don't have a heart monitor on that are very heavy. They need blood transfusion.

Susie:

They need iron. They need albumin. Different kinds of

Armaline:

Sure.

Susie:

Transfusions. Right? And so then maybe I need to just have four patients and not five.

Armaline:

Mhmm.

Susie:

And we don't have to be so stringent on what the law is. We should go off of what's gonna be safe for the patient. So what affects the nurse affects the patient. Right? If the nurse is burnt out, the nurse is trying to keep track of five patients, but you have two that are very critical that are teetering to have to possibly go to higher level of care.

Susie:

To me, it's just rational to to focus on that. Right? It it these people are somebody's somebody. That's how I look at it. Yeah.

Susie:

Even like a houseless person. Right? They were somebody's child at one time, and I just feel like you need to keep give these people dignity

Armaline:

Mhmm.

Susie:

Regardless. Right? And I think that that's just right. Management has their job that they have to do, and we continue to do ours, and ours is to advocate for patients because that's what we took an oath. And I take that very serious.

Armaline:

That makes me very happy

susie:

to hear.

Armaline:

But, I I see the rest of my team nodding as well. We're all nodding in agreement. Yeah. Fam, and that's that makes that's beautiful. It's exactly the way it should be.

Armaline:

Right? So I wanna ask, what has been the impact you think of, our county's experience during the pandemic with regard to how nurses are thought of and treated in our community, by our government, by our policy makers. So what do you what role do you think that played in the way you're thought of now? I mean, so we there are some folks that are saying things like, well, the pandemic forced everybody to realize who was actually essential in society in terms of workforces. But I guess what I would point out is that doesn't necessarily mean everyone ended up being treated as such.

Armaline:

Right? So you you all still had to go on strike, and lots of other medical professionals, as we talked about before the interview today, have also been on strike recently, and that's all been since the pandemic. So I'm just curious, like, what do you think the pandemic did with regard to your profession and how you're viewed?

susie:

You know, I when you when you first post that question, I was thinking, well, we were heroes back then, and we had a sign.

Armaline:

She did big air quotes as

susie:

you said heroes. But then we had a sign during our strike that we were heroes, and now we are zeroes. So I don't think that, management, really appreciates and understands what we all went through. It says some of us, I know that had to be there every day, had to go into the isolation rooms, had to be part of all the the the passing away of patients because we couldn't figure out at the time how to best treat them. I mean, that all, you know, stays with a nurse, and it has really affected nurses, emotionally.

susie:

And then, you know, our mental health is is still, like, questionable coming into, you know, these days where we're do we were doing the strike. And that was an issue that some of the nurses did bring up. Like, we're you guys haven't even acknowledged us for doing the pandemic, and you're, like, you know, battering us again to, you know, to to just knock us down. So, like, what what else can we do to to make you see that we are people too. We're not just pawns that you move us around.

susie:

We're not just, like, objects that you can have do whatever robots. Mhmm. So, that's my perception of it. What do you think?

Susie:

No. She summed it up perfectly. I think at the time, for my unit, we weren't designated as the COVID unit. So for about a year, we didn't have to face what other nurses had to go through. But the other vice president, Tiffany, she, at the time, worked on three surgical, and that was the unit that was deemed the COVID unit.

Susie:

And she would just cry because at the time, you had to use your 90 5 for up to three days. You couldn't, you know, change it out, and then you have to put it in a little hamburger shell. You know? And incredible. It was just hard to hear her stories.

Susie:

And like Alyssa said, like, patients passing away, I remember, you know, I as a charge nurse, I would get on what we call a bed huddle, and this killed me. And I started crying. I had to step away because there was a nurse on the progressive care unit saying, that they had a family member that was on the other side of the glass saying goodbye to their grandma because they were passing away from COVID. And it destroyed me because I thought of my grandma. And I was like, whoo.

Susie:

I can't even, like, imagine that. So I'm tearing up because of, like, thinking back. You know? You kinda get jaded and, like, you don't even you just roll with the punches. It's another day.

Armaline:

Mhmm.

Susie:

You know? And so, for those nurses, like, I really feel for them. By the time I got a COVID patient, it it was already, like, a year in. So there was more data out in how to keep yourself safe. We were able to change out our n 90 fives every day because that was actually became the new policy that you couldn't reuse your mask all of a sudden, and you had to make sure you gowned up appropriately.

Susie:

So but Alyssa summed it up. Yeah.

Armaline:

That is so heart wrenching. I mean, like, I just think about that. I mean, first of all, I think a lot a lot of us forget what it was like in the early stages of the pandemic where there was a true shortage of PPE. Like, there weren't any 95 masks anywhere. There weren't access to the kind of equipment that that professionals like you needed to just, like, stay safe yourself, let alone care for the patients and have to watch people die in that way while you're also worried about your own life, but trying not to.

Armaline:

It's a very difficult thing, I think, for a lot of us to try and wrap our heads around. And so I I appreciate you sharing that with us and with our audience. On that same note, I gotta ask, is this county ready for the next pandemic?

susie:

They had a a task force that they put into place with the first pandemic, and that task force is still there. Mhmm. My coworker or my former coworker is now, part of the nurses' side of that task force.

Armaline:

Sure.

susie:

So she is keeping supplies ready, making sure that all the departments have what they need on the floor so it's not just stockpiled in one area. So that part is is being handled. As far as, like, ongoing training for the rest of us? No.

Armaline:

Yeah. I mean, I guess that's kinda why I'm asking. Right? It's like, so you went through this incredible, very difficult period. And I guess what I'm trying to ask is, like, not just are we ready totally, like, as a community that, you know, involves much more than the hospitals and everything else, but, like, are you confident that if this happened again that you would have a different experience, or would it be more of the same?

Susie:

I think it would be a different experience. And Okay. And and I say that because the nurses are more involved.

Armaline:

That's good.

Susie:

Because we are I consider like, I always tell the board, like, we're the army. We're we know what's going on because we're on the front lines.

Armaline:

Well, anyone who's ever been to the hospital knows damn well that it's nurses that are taking care of you. I mean, it's like, if you don't have a good nurse, it's it's good luck to you, family. Like, the doctors are there for a minute. Right. It's the nurses that are actually literally taking care of you every minute of the day.

Armaline:

And so, yeah, I mean, no no need for explanation there.

Susie:

Yeah. So because the nurses are more involved and because they, you know, handled, like, the command centers and getting the supplies and I think there would be a different outcome if it were to happen again, which I hope it doesn't. But I I think it it would be different.

Armaline:

Okay.

Susie:

Yeah.

susie:

Well,

Armaline:

that is reassuring. I I wanna ask another question sort of around, you know, our kinda capacity as a county. So So this has been in the news quite a bit. I just wanted to get your comments on. I bet you already know what I'm gonna ask about.

Armaline:

I do. What do you think I'm gonna ask about?

Susie:

Regional.

Armaline:

Exactly. So, you know, so for our audience, who may not be aware, Regional Medical Center on the East Side is one of the only accessible trauma units in the entire neighborhood of the East Side, which as we know is really geographically kinda landlocked in between all the freeways. So, it really is the only place that if you're suffering from something that's immediate like a stroke or a heart attack or something like that where you need care within a certain amount of minutes in order to survive that that health emergency, Regional Medical Center is really one of the only places for some of those East Side neighborhoods that you're gonna make it in time. Now regional is also a private institution, so it's privately owned. It's in partnership with the county in some ways.

Armaline:

It's a little more complicated than we have time to get into. But for all practical purposes, they're they they are a private, entity. And they have recently threatened, for many of the same reasons I think that you are all talking about with the county facilities, saving money, you know, being more, a profit, minded, let's say, they have threatened to close this this center. They have threatened to close this this trauma center. And so it's been in front of the board of supervisors.

Armaline:

It's been bandied about, in the media, but there, to my knowledge, has not been a solution. So I'm just genuinely curious what your thoughts are on this issue and, really anything you have to share, on it. You know, what you think about the the problem, whether or not we have a solution. What are your thoughts on on the issue?

susie:

Well, I I know that in the article, it had talked about the county and some other, public figures that wanted to take it to the state and ask the state for help. So I believe they did that, but, but then the state is saying they're in a deficit. So I don't know what help could possibly come from that. I know that our hospital, as far as the doctors, they're trying to figure out a way to deal with the influx of patients that are gonna be coming our way Sure. When those services end at regional.

susie:

And the we already mapped it out. It's like an eight minute drive from regional to valley without traffic.

Armaline:

Well, I was just about to say that's not county East Side traffic, which is absolutely gonna double that time, if if not more.

susie:

Yeah. So there's, I mean, without the stroke, without the, STEMI. STEMI on the East Side, that's gonna be very, very tough for those folks. Mhmm.

Susie:

Yeah. I was just gonna say scared. I'm scared for the for those people. I feel so bad. A lot of my family members, my mom's sister and, brother-in-law live on the East Side.

Susie:

I have tons of cousins who live on the East Side. It's definitely gonna increase our patient load. Those that community is gonna suffer greatly. There's you know, we're we're already many days in the red where they have to divert our emergency department at VMC and at O'Connor also. And so when they divert, they're supposed to go to another hospital.

Susie:

So what's the other hospital? Kaiser. Or you can't what are you gonna do? Trauma, though. I know.

Susie:

And then what are you gonna do? You know, Stanford? I mean Yeah.

susie:

That's ludicrous. Stanford's

Susie:

the next one. But but what I wanna touch base on is

Armaline:

just So from East Side all the way to West Palo Alto, right, to try and get treatment.

Susie:

But I think what we're missing with regional is and I wanna make this clear is that HCA owns regional.

Armaline:

Mhmm.

Susie:

And they're from Texas or Tennessee or Mhmm. Somewhere over there. The out state. Yeah. And it's corporate greed.

Susie:

Let's just be honest. HCA is one of the worst, for profit, businesses, that's out there, and they make money off of sick people. And it disgust me. And this is why I would never work for HCA.

susie:

Well, they have a sister hospital, which is, Good Sam.

Armaline:

Mhmm.

susie:

Good Sam is in a very permanent location, which is Los Gatos. So they're not closing anything in Los Gatos.

Armaline:

I was just about to ask the question. Is there any way in hell that if this was an issue on the West Side, we would be dealing with this issue?

susie:

No. I don't think so.

Armaline:

That's a hard no.

Susie:

Yeah. Because you always wanna go after the marginalized. Right? The, quote, unquote, poor who need the most help. And so those are the people that are gonna suffer the most because, you know, to HCA, either disposable, they're not gonna bring us money anyway.

Susie:

Right? So Mhmm.

Armaline:

Mhmm. And I think that's I think it's very important for us all to understand. Right? It's like, there's a reason that that's being allowed to happen in the East Side. Mhmm.

Armaline:

And there's no way on earth they would let that happen in the Cupertino, in Los Gatos, and the other wealthier areas of our region. I mean, none of us can even imagine that. Right? The the the there'd be people out the door losing their mind if they said, well, if you're in Los Gatos, you're not gonna get treatment for trauma. And, you know, the only reason we're even having this conversation is because it's with a population that really, frankly, is less powerful, frankly, to speak to those market pressures.

Armaline:

Right? For all the reasons you said, they're not making they're not making money on the out of pocket costs from those those patients.

Susie:

Right.

susie:

Right.

Armaline:

Right? Which is, really despicable, like, on a level that's it's difficult to articulate. Right? Because like you said, you're just talking about, like, people. Like, just people who are in need in that moment and of no fault of their own, now literally will just not have access to the care they need to survive that that emergency.

Armaline:

So, I hope our audience is is really thinking hard about that aspect of the of the issue, and I I like that you put it in very clear language.

susie:

Yeah.

Armaline:

Right?

Susie:

I just wanted to point out real quick. It also started about two, three years ago. They they closed the labor and delivery. That's how it first started. So so I

Armaline:

didn't know that.

Susie:

Yeah. So that's been closed for a while, and I think it's been two years that that's been closed. That's how it started.

Armaline:

That's incredible.

Susie:

Knew that that was, like, a signal that it's not gonna be good because now all those, you know, people that are having to give birth, they had to go to VMCU or Connor, go all the way to Saint Louis. And even then, Saint Louis is a whole other story as well, but that's how it started as they closed down their labor and delivery.

Armaline:

Mhmm. So I I have a a last, question, and I will admit it's the heaviest, and it's probably a somewhat unexpected one, but I'm genuinely curious your thoughts. So, to lead into this, you know, you were talking earlier about the system that you use, when you have patients come in and decide what kind of care and what level of care they need based on how ill they are, how how unstable they might be, or or what have you. And, about a month ago at San Jose State, we brought in a local surgeon who had just gotten back from a five week mission, serving in the southern region of Gaza. And one of the most incredible things that this man, shared with us, doctor Suba, an amazing human being.

Armaline:

I was thrilled to even be in his presence. His level of emotional maturity and calm and steadfastness is something that I will forever remember and admire. And he was talking about his experience working on all of these civilian casualties from the ongoing genocide that's happening in that region. And the first thing that I will mention is that every single story was a war crime. So for those in the audience that are still bantering about, all of the media bullshit and all of the cover and nonsense from our state department trying to claim that this is anything but a nonstop bonanza of war crimes that is in mounting to a genocide.

Armaline:

All you have to do is talk for ten minutes with the medical professionals that are actually treating those being killed. And, again, every single case was a war crime. Every single one. And one of the most incredible things that the doctor said was he described their method for having to judge who got treatment and who didn't. And this was probably one of the most heart wrenching conversations I have ever been a part of where the doctor said, you know, you have he has incredible, respect for the the medical professionals that have been really serving in Gaza and occupied Palestine for a long time under these conditions where they had come to realize and they could tell within seconds whether or not and most of of a vast majority of these patients are children and women.

Armaline:

I mean, by a massive majority. He said in his entire time there, he did not treat a single quote unquote militant. Not one. They were all civilian casualties, vast majority women and children. And he said they would be wheeled in, brought in, and sometimes in pieces.

Armaline:

Right? And they had medical professionals that would tell within seconds, this person's not gonna make it. And and that 100% of their effort just went simply to comforting them in their very last moments. And that over and over again, their job was to make that very assessment within minutes. Because, again, they only had so much medical equipment.

Armaline:

I mean, he was talking about they were sharing a single tourniquet. One, that they would literally take off one person when they bled out and throw it onto another, and using their own belts and everything else whenever they needed to. And these were the conditions under which they were working, and and the kinds of decisions they had to make on the fly with regard to that gauging of the level of the patient was something that, I mean, frankly, is impossible for us to even wrap our minds around, having to make those kinds of decisions and what it's like to make those kinds of decisions. And so I just have to ask, as medical professionals, how have you thought about and processed what these other what some of your colleagues are going through in these kinds of places like occupied Palestine and and elsewhere where, again, they're they're for the very same dedication to their people that you have very clearly, really having to make the the worst, of decisions on, you know, an hourly basis. I'm just wondering how you've been processing to the extent that you've had the bandwidth to be paying attention.

Armaline:

Right? Because you have your own issues that we've been talking about. How are you processing what's happening to some of your colleagues and with some of your colleagues also considering the fact that they've been targeted throughout the entire the entire conflict. So one of the other just incredible things that the doctor shared was that he learned in the first week there that you never wear your scrubs outside of outside of facility because they will literally target and shoot you. That it not only was it not a protection, that it made you a target of the IDF the moment you left the building so that none of the medical professionals dared wearing their scrubs or any medical gear outside of the facility.

Armaline:

Again, I share this just because I'm just genuinely curious how other medical professionals are processing what's happening to your colleagues. Again, some of them are from here. Right? They're going to serve. What are your thoughts on that and and what what some of our colleagues or your colleagues are going through in those kinds of conditions?

Susie:

I don't think I can process it. I mean, having conversations with my girlfriend and watching interviews. I don't know if you guys saw the video of the dad holding his little boy without a

Armaline:

There are countless countless countless.

Susie:

And I just they're my heroes because they have more guts than me to actually go down there and take care of of these innocent people. And we to me, I'm not gonna speak for anyone else

Armaline:

Sure.

Susie:

Know that it is a genocide. And, you know, any killing like that, any kind of war crimes is a war crime. No matter how you put it and, you know, and having these extensive conversations with my girlfriends on politics. And, yeah, I voted for Biden. And am I happy with him?

Susie:

Hell no. Right? I'm not not not some fanatic. Like, you know, like, you know, some Trump fanatics and stuff and whatnot, not to get too political, but, you know, you you vote these people in for for a reason. Mhmm.

Susie:

And, and when, you know, they're not doing their job, it's very upsetting. But I could only feel for, you know, other nurses that are going down there. They just interviewed a nurse I just saw not too long ago. I mean, she wasn't she couldn't stop crying. She couldn't even get through the interview because she wasn't just crying because of what she saw.

Susie:

She was crying because she was back in The States, and she wanted to go back. Yeah. And I was like, that's my hero.

Armaline:

Yeah.

Susie:

Right? And It's so inspiring, fam. It really it really is. And and and I and I feel for her, and I feel for, you know, the other the other nurses and doctors that are going down there and doing more than I could ever do. And I'm so proud of them, and I could only imagine the PTSD they're gonna have when they come back.

Susie:

But, man, they're creating as much change as they can. You know?

susie:

Yeah. Yeah. I completely agree. I was just gonna, you know, tie in that PTSD because, although you don't you're not in combat, you're seeing what combat produces.

Armaline:

Sure.

susie:

And, and then having to make that decision of of, like, can I actually help this person, or is this someone I just have to let go? And and then do you have time to comfort that person

Armaline:

Mhmm.

susie:

Still? So, yeah, that that's that's so hard on, on so many levels that, you know, I commend those people that can go down there and do it. I know, personally, I I can't. I can support in any way possible, but, definitely, you know, kudos to them.

Armaline:

I I appreciate that. I think that's a a a really good way to put it, and I just had to ask. Right? Because I I was thinking about it and thinking about our, you know, our talk with with him, and, it's really stuck with me since, I mean, in so many ways. But I, I'm just again, I same with journalists.

Armaline:

Right? It's like I wanna ask journalists, like, how are you feeling about all these journalists that are just being targeted and killed? You know what I mean? And all these sorts of things. And it affects our whole profession.

Armaline:

Right? It affects, everything that we do. So I thank you for your honesty, about that. Okay. So great big deep breath.

Armaline:

Alright. So let's let's those that's the end of the heavy the heavy questions. Now we're gonna get some totally shift gears, and we're gonna wrap up with some light fare. So just to get to sick some silly stuff for for a minute, or sillier stuff. So, if you had to choose, what is your favorite thing about living in San Jose or or our region?

Susie:

Food.

susie:

It's a

Armaline:

good segue to the second question.

susie:

I'm a foodie. I love that you can get basically every kind of food of any culture here.

Susie:

Food Same. She took my answer. Yeah. Or you could just talk to people. You could just talk to just random people about food for sure.

Susie:

Just fills community.

susie:

Yeah.

Susie:

I've been to a lot of places, but

susie:

Yeah.

Susie:

I love San Jose.

susie:

Okay. I I have to tell you something.

Armaline:

Go for it.

susie:

So I lived in Albuquerque where everybody was predominantly Hispanic and Latina and Latino. And then I went to Texas, and Texas was mostly Caucasian. And then I came to San Jose, and I was like, oh my gosh. There are all kinds of people. There's even Asian people like me because I grew up being, like, the only Asian person.

Armaline:

Well, it was interesting. So when, when you were talking earlier and saying that you, immigrated from Vietnam, I I almost followed up to ask, well, which immigration wave did you come in? Because San Jose is such a massive, location for, Vietnamese diaspora. Right? So following the war, we had a huge wave, and then there was a second wave that came after that.

Armaline:

And so then when you said, but I bounced around before that, I pulled the question back. But I I was curious because, again, I mean, it's, San Jose is has a massive Vietnamese diaspora. Right? And that's a unique aspect of San Jose. So at first, I thought, oh, that's probably why you ended up here, but then you had kind of a different story.

Armaline:

So

susie:

Yeah. I was in the first wave in '75, and, the only person that could take my entire family was a gentleman that lived in Albuquerque. So that's how I ended

Armaline:

up here. That was your sponsor. Okay. That

susie:

was our sponsor.

Armaline:

Right on. Right on. So, yeah, if you can't guess what my second question is, is everybody we bring on the show, you gotta pick your favorite spot to eat. Ugh. Yeah.

Armaline:

Yeah. Let's get down to the real hard hitting questions.

Susie:

I got my spot.

Armaline:

The hard hitting questions at San Jose lowdown. Best place to eat in San Jose, in your humble opinion, whoever wants to start.

Susie:

It's recently for me. Recently. I like, Halal Amigos. I don't know if you ever heard of that place. It's in Willow Glen.

Armaline:

Tell our audience.

Susie:

It's really, really good. They, his story is just great, but they cook, what's the word I'm looking for? So they don't serve pork. No alcohol.

Armaline:

So it's all halal. Right?

Susie:

It's halal. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Susie:

But it's just really fresh. Like, it's What's

Armaline:

your favorite thing to order?

Susie:

So good. A burrito.

Armaline:

Bet. It's

Susie:

a burrito carne asada. I am not vegetarian.

Armaline:

And where is where is it located? What part of town?

Susie:

In Willow Glen.

Armaline:

That. Let's see the foodie. The foodie's having trouble.

susie:

I I'm having trouble because I have a favorite for every kind of food.

Susie:

Yeah. I was gonna say if

Armaline:

it's I will allow you two.

susie:

Okay. So for Vietnamese food, the best place that I have gone to

Armaline:

take notes.

susie:

Is, Pho Hanoi.

Armaline:

They are good. I've been there.

susie:

They are really good. And their their noodles, the fresh noodles, is not common in this area. Like, everybody has processed noodles, and that's just well, but if you get fresh noodles, then it's, like, elevated.

Armaline:

That's the joy.

susie:

So then my second one, that one's so tough. Can you go to Susie and come back? No.

Susie:

Just got my one place.

Armaline:

The the beauty is we can edit this down. You can take as much time as you like.

susie:

I would have to say Sumaya, which is you've been there. Okay. So Sumaya is Japanese, grill house, and it's not, you know, the typical rolls and Mhmm. Sashimi and whatnot. But they grill meat, and you not being a vegetarian would love the grilled meat because that grilled meat is on, you know, like, open flame, and you just it's a way better taste than just pan seared or whatever.

susie:

And that one is also right next to Stan's Donuts. So, like, if you go for lunch, you can pop over and get dessert at Stan's.

Susie:

It's funny to know.

Armaline:

You're gonna get all the lowdown on this show, fam, on on the nurses' strike, on the best joints, the best homemade, Vietnamese noodles. You even got a a a Japanese, grilled joint right next to the donut shop where you can get your dessert. So we we try and bring all the best information to our audience.

Susie:

I gotta plug my favorite sushi place.

Armaline:

I know you

Susie:

got that up. Go for it. And I took a list of there. It's on Stevens Creek. It's the only place I'll eat sushi.

Armaline:

So I

Susie:

had to do it. So my girlfriend was like, you didn't bring them up. They're so good. You guys had a track record.

Armaline:

Make sure all your plugs make

susie:

you the drink. That drink is the bomb.

Susie:

Oh, there's like a a sparkling, sake.

susie:

Yes. Yeah.

Susie:

It's called the hanawaka. It's really good. Yeah.

Armaline:

Alright. I'm taking notes. Yeah. I'm taking notes. Well, look y'all.

Armaline:

I I from the bottom of my heart, I really wanna thank y'all for taking the time to come talk to us and being part of the part of the show. And just to let our audience know, you know, these two, we were trying to get them in, and and we were scheduling right amidst their negotiation. And so, they really have been very generous with their time with us and to share their story with you all. So I just hope everyone would join me in in thanking our guests for today because it's really been wonderful to sit down with you all. So thank you so much for joining us at the San Jo Lowdown.

Armaline:

We we really hope that we can maybe bring you back, another time, maybe for an election special or something like that. But but for now, we're we're really, really excited to share your story with our audience. So thank you again so much for coming today.

Susie:

Oh, thank you guys for giving us the opportunity to come and talk.

Armaline:

And congratulations again on the on the win. You really deserve it. You worked hard, and and you deserve the congratulations.

Susie:

Thank you.

susie:

Thank you so much. Of course. Pleasure being here.

Joaquin:

Do you have any orgs or any

Armaline:

Oh, yeah. Anything you wanna

susie:

plug? Orgs?

Armaline:

Any events, any organizations, anything you wanna plug?

susie:

No. We don't have any events coming up yet. We're still in

Armaline:

It's okay.

susie:

In planning mode.

Armaline:

We just always

Susie:

Thank you.

Armaline:

Yeah. We let the we always let the guests like, if there's anything you wanna plug or anything you wanna shout out in the shows, we can edit it in.

susie:

Oh, yes. To our members, yeah, join your union. To all the to all the nurses, go join your union. Just because you are a nurse does not mean that you have the same protections as you would, when you are all under the same umbrella. So, learn about your unions.

susie:

Go join your unions. There's so many reps

Armaline:

How can they do that? What what what should they do if they if they hear this and they're like, you know what? I wanna see what's up. I wanna I wanna make sure that I'm a member.

Susie:

I would say ask your fellow, you know, nurses. I mean, for us, of course, you know, RMPA is registered nurses professional association. So they would go to RMPA.net, but you have to be a county nurse to sign up to be part of RMPA.

susie:

Yeah. We're a little bit different because we are nurses, and then we're on the board. So, like, we go out to the hospital, and we talk to people, and everybody kinda already knows us. But for the other unions, sometimes they have hired people that that do that. And so you would, yeah, ask your coworkers because Kaiser has CNA and Stanford has Corona.

susie:

Mhmm. El Camino has PRN. So there's there's a whole bunch of great unions out there. Just go find your union and get involved. Yes.

susie:

And don't just be a member. Like, be a unit rep. Learn your way Yeah. And then come join the board.

Susie:

Yeah. Don't be transactional. A lot of people think this is a service, and we are a business. We are an organization, and you're only as strong as your weakest link. And, my hero is Cesar Chavez.

Susie:

So. And, you know, we gotta stay united. Yes. Big message.

Armaline:

I think that's a beautiful way to wrap. Thank you so much.

susie:

Thank you. Thank you.

Elora:

Hey, everyone. Elora and Joaquin here providing some updates regarding Regional Medical Center. How are you doing, Joaquin?

Joaquin:

I'm good. How you doing?

Elora:

I'm well. Thank you. Very happy to provide some updates regarding regional. What do you have?

Joaquin:

Yeah. So, you know, in the episode, we learned from Susie and Alyssa that the regional medical center was gonna be closing down their trauma center, which, you know, is lifesaving access for a lot of people living in the East Side who need emergency care. So since that recording, we learned that the county bought the regional medical center, and it's gonna stay open.

Elora:

Yeah. That's exciting. Win. Super big win. Definitely.

Joaquin:

You were mentioning before the pod that there's other services that are also gonna be opening back up?

Elora:

Yeah. Definitely. I read that, the labor and delivery departments, which were closed several year years ago Mhmm. Will remain open as well as, stroke and heart attack and several others.

Joaquin:

That's fantastic. I know Susie was mentioning the, the labor department was closed down. So it's good to see that that's opening back up.

Susie:

Yep.

Joaquin:

There there is a caveat here though. Okay. Tell me about it. No longer it's no longer gonna be running at a level two trauma center. It's now downgrading to a level three, which is just their way of saying that certain staff aren't going to be present their way of saying that certain staff aren't going to be present 20 fourseven.

Joaquin:

So, for example, like surgeons and anesthesiologists that would have been at a level two trauma center twenty four hours a day are now at least thirty minutes away.

Elora:

That sounds pretty concerning.

Joaquin:

Yeah. It does leave me with a little bit of, like, apprehension. Like, for a trauma center, you kind of hope those people are there right away.

Susie:

Right.

Joaquin:

Because as Susie mentioned, minutes matter.

Susie:

Mhmm.

Joaquin:

So definitely something to be desired, but, hey, a win is a win.

Elora:

Yeah. Great. Great job East Side. We saw you out there striking, filling out, different petitions, and really making your voices and concerns heard. So great job to you.

Elora:

We really appreciate you, and we look forward to providing you with updates as they come.

Armaline:

So, I'm joined again for our conclusion with, Sanjo lowdown team members, Nick on the board and and Alora who joined us, last episode. And we're just kinda what's up y'all? How you doing? What's up everybody? Doing well.

Susie:

Yeah. Yeah.

Armaline:

Alright. Bet. But, you know, we're just kinda thinking about how how the interview went. And, you know, for me, I could've talked to this too forever. Mhmm.

Armaline:

I mean, first of all, you could feel, like, viscerally how good they are at their job and how much they give a shit about what they do and the people they care for. I'm not saying this to, like, blow smoke up the ass of our guests or our audience. Right? But, like, legit, I could've like, the time flew by. I could've stayed and hung out and talked to him just about the restaurants, let alone the hospital.

Armaline:

Right? And again, they had such like a I don't know. Like, again, viscerally, you could tell that they were very, very good at at caregiving. Like, they're very, very good at what they did, and they took pride in it, and they did it really well. I I don't know what y'all thought.

Armaline:

Again, like, I I could've talked to them forever.

Elora:

Yeah. And just as human beings, their personalities and just, again, the amount of love and care and dedication that they have to the community is awesome.

Armaline:

Yeah. And when they talked about their fight, like, when they talked about how they were, you know, willing to, like, really fight, not just for themselves, but for their patients and for their coworkers and all of that, it really kind of struck home to me, like, what unions are supposed to be about Yeah. What labor organizing is supposed to be about. And again, like, they weren't just fighting, like, for their own ass. Right?

Armaline:

They were really legitimately fighting for all of us. Like, all of us that that ultimately use this public health care system saying, like, hey. Like, the working class people and working people who come to our county hospitals deserve good care too. It's not just for the wealthy that are gonna be paying off the nose at one of the privates. Right?

Armaline:

And even for the private hospital, and we're talking about, you know, the the trauma center on the East Side.

Susie:

Mhmm.

Armaline:

You know, they had feelings about that. Right? They knew for a fact, like, what that was gonna mean for very real people. Right? And for for people's, you know, life and death situations and but also for themselves who had to work in the hospital that would pick up all the slack.

Elora:

Yeah. Definitely. During that time when they were talking about, you know, regional potentially closing, what I thought about was my grandparents who are getting up in age, and they're up there living up Mount Hamilton. It already takes at least five minutes to get down mountain, another five minutes to get to regional. And if that closes, they're not gonna make it to Palo

Armaline:

Alto. Fuck. No. I mean, again, if you have a stroke,

susie:

if you

Armaline:

have a heart attack, bro, that's minutes. Like, every minute is more brain death, right, if you have a stroke. Every minute, if you have a heart attack, increases the chances you aren't gonna recover from that. Yeah. So, I mean, I I thought about the exact same thing.

Armaline:

And and also thinking about, you know, how many of our our interviews have been with, like, dedicated east siders, like, the public educators and others. And, like, all these folks are affected by that that center closing. Right? Yep. Yeah.

Armaline:

I I I I thought about the same thing. You know, I was also really you know, I don't know about I don't know about y'all, but I was really touched, but also infuriated when we talked about the similarities between the decisions that they had to make in the hospital relative to the profit motives of their managers. You know, when they're gauging, like, this patient's a level two, this patient's a level three, a level four in terms of their needs. And the medical folks that are having to do the same under massive level levels of duress in occupied Palestinian territories and in war zones. And I was really touched by the extent to which they were showing such adoration and love for their colleagues that did that impressive work.

Armaline:

Yep. While also being strong enough to admit, like, you know, I don't know if I could do that, you know. And and I shared, frankly, their anger. Like, you could see through their smiles, like, that they were angry at the fact that their colleagues in Gaza and in in these other war zones Mhmm. Are literally not just sort of going through it, but they're being targeted.

Armaline:

They're being killed for doing their job. Right? And I you could tell that I mean, it's not a direct comparison. It's not the same. But there's similarities.

Armaline:

Right? Where, like, they're trying to do their job under the duress of of of corporate profit. Right? Under the, you know, more more more, less less less cost. I don't care if you're using the same mask all day during COVID.

Armaline:

Like, that kind of shit. Right? Stress for resources. Mhmm. You know, it just was like I said, that that part of the conversation for me was, like, both infuriating and touching at the same time.

Elora:

Yeah. Also very humbling. Like you said, that they are doing a lot of

Susie:

a lot

Elora:

you know, putting themselves in these very dangerous situations, but still coming at it with so much so much heart and so much care and putting others' lives before their own safety.

Armaline:

And still being cool and laughing and, like, clearly being, like like, when we started talking about their favorite places to eat, like, I was, like, fam, I would kick it with these folks.

Susie:

Yeah. Definitely. It'd be fun.

Armaline:

You feel me? Like and I always kinda knew. Like, I got friends that are nurses and stuff. Nurses can be wild. You know what I mean?

Armaline:

Like, I I got cousins that are nurses that I know, like, in off time, nurses are some some wild folks or can be, not all of them, can be. And I just got that sense from the two of them. It's like, I would definitely kick it with them any day of the week. Yep. I would absolutely put myself in their care

Elora:

Oh, definitely.

Armaline:

Any day of the week. And just found them to be generally, like, really wonderful people, you know. So last but not least, we wanna make sure we thank everybody for today's episode. I absolutely wanna thank Alyssa. I wanna thank Susie, and I wanna thank the entire RMPA, their whole union, all their people.

Armaline:

I wanna congratulate all them and their their amazing win, and in their struggle. And also, I wanna appreciate the county for giving them what they should give them. I wanna, of course, as always, thank the San Jo Lowdown team. Alora, Nick, Joaquin, Manel. We feel you fam.

Armaline:

Manel's out in Spain right now, but he'll be back in a couple weeks. And, again, like I said, this has been the San Jo lowdown. We really appreciate you. Please follow us on IG and wherever else you can, and look for the next episode coming soon.

Elora:

Awesome. Take care. Thank you.