Staten Island University Hospital Nurses Plan Strike For July 8

Nurses Union

Published

Nurses from Staten Island University Hospital in Ocean Breeze are planning a one-day strike on July 8 at 7 a.m. since an agreement hasn't been reached between the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) and the medical facility over staffing issues.

If the one-day strike occurs, hospital management would then "lock-out" striking nurses for another five days, according to Tara L. Martin, senior communications manager for NYSNA.

Nurses at SI University Hospital plan strike on July 8 | SILive.com

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I wish them all the best.

It's hard for nurses to strike without creating a backlash in the media and "patient dies on gurney in the hall" type headlines.. At least, this one day strike will limit that risk. If hospital administrators follow that up with a five-day-lockout—a foolishly vindictive move—the blame for what follows will rest on them.

Could someone with experience in hospital strikes explain what one means in practice? I have trouble imagining what happens. My blood runs cold at the thought of nursing administrators taking on work they've not done for years. Temps are usually manageable when they are a minority of staff. For this strike, they'll be almost all the staff, and that's assuming they don't stay away in sympathy.

I got slammed with the result of strikes twice while traveling by train in France. It meant perhaps four trains replaced by one and even "standing room only" doesn't describe the agony of it all. But I can't imagine how to extend that response to a hospital setting. You can run a train stuffed with 2,000 people from Brussels to Paris with just a couple of crew in the locomotive keeping it moving. You cannot run a hospital that way.

Hospitals develop strike contingency plans. I just can't grasp how those plan can work well even on a short-term basis.

Anyone with actual experience with a hospital strike should feel free to comment.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

While it may seem "vindictive" standard industry practice for sometime has been when a job action is called even for one day or less, nurses will be "locked out" for five days or so. Reason is simple; travel, temp, scab or whatever you want to call them replacement nurses are contracted in blocks of minimum time. That period is usually five days...

You need to offer people some sort of minimum gig otherwise attracting qualified temps would prove difficult. No one is going to travel several hundred or thousands of miles for one day's work. Usually but not always such nurses are hired via an agency and they also need to make the numbers work.

Unlike the old days when a facility placed adverts in local newspapers for "temporary" nurses using an agency/travelers allows a nationwide reach for replacement nurses. Thus a facility is not limited to the local population of experienced RNs. If they want someone with >five years of recent CCU experience that can be done, even if said nurse is coming to New York all the way from Los Angeles.

In this instance NS-LIJ seems to be using nurses from within their system; but still Staten Island isn't the easiest place to reach.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

You said it, about the time it takes to get from Point A in NYC to Point B. I can drive drive from Spokane in Eastern Washington to Seattle or Tacoma on the Pacific Ocean in less time that it would take to drive from Suffolk County to New Jersey, or Staten Island.

THAT is why I don't live there any more!

Lindarn, RN, BSzN, CCRN(ret)

Somewhere in the PACNW

Up Vote Up Vote ×

According to an article in SI Advance an agreement has been reached and strike threat called off. No details were released.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment