How much more damage will Fremont Rideout Hospital Group administration and board members afflict on its community hospital? I have been a lifelong Yuba-Sutter resident and have worked as a nurse at Rideout for the past 24 years. I have had a seat on the nurses' bargaining team since the nurses overwhelmingly voted to obtain representation from the California Nurses Association two years ago.

The RNs at FRHG have been in a bitter struggle with administration to secure a contract for our hospitals' nurses that will better protect our patients, improve the care we provide, and recruit and retain well-trained nurses to our community.

During this entire time, not once have our administration team or board members talked with us about what our issues are. We have had to meet with an out-of-town attorney who has no investment in our community or the patients that we serve.

Over eight months ago, FRHG offered what it is calling their "last, best and final offer." The nurses voted overwhelmingly to reject this offer. It is substandard in many areas, the biggest being that it leaves nurses who are active union supporters open to unfair discipline, it does not provide union security that ensures a strong, united bargaining unit, and it allows regular staff nurses to be called off without pay while travelers are guaranteed four paid shifts a week.

This means that nurses who live and spend their hard-earned dollars in the community would go without a portion of their income. Meanwhile, travel nurses, who are here for a short time and take their incomes back home with them, are making huge amounts of money that is all leaving the Yuba-Sutter area.

In the 24 years I have worked at FRHG, things seem to be at their worst right now. Every month, more and more of my colleagues become tired of going without a contract and leave to work in surrounding hospitals that value their nurses by offering them a contract that protects both patients and nurses. With that, we have more travel nurses than I have ever seen. In recent days, it is not uncommon in our ICU to work with more travelers than regular staff.

With so much talk by administration about expansion and building a new tower in Marysville, I just wonder how these new units can be staffed with nurses seeing the situation we are in now. It seems irresponsible to be considering such a huge undertaking without correcting the existing problems first.

This entire situation is a sad commentary for our community. I have heard it said by some, "If it's so bad, why don't you just leave and go somewhere else?" My answer to that is simple. This is my community and the patients I care for are my friends, family, and neighbors. If we all leave instead of trying to make things better, then what will become of our community hospital? I say to FRHG administration and board members: settle things with your nurses by giving us a fair contract so we can move on and improve our hospital.

Heather Avalos is a registered nurse in the Rideout Memorial Hospital Intensive Care Unit.