Labor & Employment Law

Washington Hospital Center Nurses Authorize Strike

By James Parks

Registered nurses at Washington (D.C.) Hospital Center have voted overwhelmingly to authorize a one-day strike. No date has been set for a walkout at the hospital, which employs 1,650 RNs.

The nurses say the hospital refuses to address serious concerns they have about safe staffing and other patient care issues. National Nurses United (NNU), which represents the nurses, says a recently leaked internal survey of hospital employees conducted by management found a significant percentage of  employees believe the hospital is lacking in patient safety. 

The nurses also object to attempts to cut their pay and benefits. They have filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board claiming the hospital, which is owned by MedStar, violated federal labor law by imposing pay cuts and other workplace changes. 

?The nurses at Washington Hospital Center are fed up with management?s disrespect and its refusal to come to terms with us on the crucial issues of patient care and nursing standards,? said Sara Towald, a nurse at the hospital.

Management should listen to our warnings that its stance will cause a further deterioration of patient care at our hospital, drive away more experienced nurses, and burn out new nurses. 

A delegation of nurses last week presented documentation of 103 instances of unsafe patient care since Oct. 1 to hospital management. Nurses identified inadequate staffing as the cause of 86 instances, most of them in which the patients were severely ill.

The nurses have been without a contract since last April. A scheduled strike in November 2010 was averted when the hospital recognized the NNU as the nurses? collective bargaining representative, agreed to start bargaining for a new contract and delayed implementation of its planned unilateral pay cut for nurses who work evenings, nights and weekends. There has been little progress in contract talks with more bargaining sessions scheduled for later this month.

The deterioration of Washington Hospital Center?s relationship with its nurses and other caregivers was evident in the hospital?s internal survey from last spring and summer. Of 12 indicators of ?patient safety culture? identified in the survey, not one was ranked as a ?strength? by the 4,400  participating employees. Areas identified as weak included staffing, hand offs and transitions, teamwork across units and non-punitive response to error.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on February 16, 2011 (boomark / email).