New York City RNs Hold Strike Vote

OCNRN63, RN · Jun 10, 2015

Bronx Nurses Threatened and Removed from Hospital Over Safe Staffing
Bronx, N.Y., May 7, 2015
Registered Nurses at Montefiore Medical Center's Weiler Hospital in the Bronx were threatened with arrest and escorted out of the hospital today after speaking out about staffing shortages.
The nurses, who are members of the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA), were attending a breakfast to celebrate National Nurses Week in the Weiler Hospital cafeteria when, in the midst of discussions with fellow nurses about staffing conditions in the facility, were told to keep quiet and were escorted out of the hospital.
Seven nurses were removed from the facility...
Bronx Nurses Threatened and Removed from Hospital Over Safe Staffing | Reuters

The irony...on National Nurses Week!

lindarn · Jun 11, 2015

Have you reported them to the Labor Department yet? It is against the law to not pay you for hours worked.

Not taking into consideration the patient acuity at the time, and critical events occurring, that you have NO control over, are valid reason to not be able to get you work done on time.

I would guess, that when the DOL gets wind of what they are doing, you and your fellow employees will be getting a big, fat check from your employer.

NEVER word off the clock. If your employer complains, ask him/her, exactly how you are supposed to get you work accomplished in 8 hours given the above scenario. ASK THEM, to give you pointers, on what you should cut out, or skimp on, to get your work accomplished in a more timely fashion.

JMHO and my NY $0.02

Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN, (ret)

Somewhere in the PACNW

DoGoodThenGo · Jun 17, 2015

Nurses need to get in the public's face about this issue. Have a BIG rally in Central Park, invite the Daily News, the NY Times, the TV Stations, CNN, etc.
Hand out balloons to the kids, provide free BP screenings for the public ,etc, The NY: Times, just had an article that was titled, "NY Needs More Nurses". I would contact the staff writer, that wrote that article, and give him/her, an earful concerning what is going on with your contract negotiations, and how and why, staffing is important. Direct them to the articles from the IOM, concerning nurse staffing, and patient mortality and morbidity.
Have fliers to hand out, concerning the relationship between nurse staffing, and poor patient outcomes, etc. Include BIG posters, that quote the mortality due to poor staffing, include the salaries of the CEO, etc, and the cost of their benefits packages, etc.
Remind the public that TEACHERS HAVE A SET AMOUNT OF PUPILS THAT ARE ALLOWED IN EACH CLASSROOM. Why? Because teachers have made it clear, that children don't learn when teachers have too many children in their classrooms. Hospitals have kept that information under wraps for a reason. Schools have their testing results made open to the public. Hospitals keep their mortality and morbidity results under wraps.
A hospital here in Spokane, has a bill board downtown, with a running time for its ER patient wait times. Why isn't there a bill board that informs the public what its nurse patient ratios are??
Remind the public that, NO ONE EVER DIED BECAUSE THEY COULD NOT DO LONG DIVISION, OR DIAGRAM A SENTENCE !! Patients are dying and suffering because nurses have too many patients to be responsible for!
YOUR CHILD SAFER IN A KINDERGARTEN CLASSROOM, THEN THE PEDIATRICS WARD OF A HOSPITAL!!
AS AN EX-NYer, I FULLY SUPPORT YOUR EFFORTS! FEEL FREE TO QUOTE THE ABOVE STATEMENTS TO THE PUBLIC, NEWS AND THE PRESS!!
JMHO and my NY $0.02
Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN (ret)
Somewhere in the PACNW

A good number of local NYC nurses *are* trying, but you have to counter attitudes that vary from supportive to someone that views nurses as overpaid and or underworked. You hear comments like "when my grandmother was in "X" hospital I had to ring the (call) bell (insert your favourite number here) before a nurse showed up. Or "*they*" make all the nursing assistants do the work while they sit at the nurse's station.....

Read some of the comments posted here from a local Staten Island newspaper regarding the strike vote: Nurses approve strike over staffing at 2 Island hospitals | SILive.com

Some truly understand and get it; others, well best left not said.

DoGoodThenGo · Jun 20, 2015

*Update*

As of Thursday a tentative agreement was reached via mediation between several of the NYC hospitals and the New York State Nurses Association; plans for a strike have now ended pending ratification of the deal. Registered nurses will not walk out of hospitals | Crain's New York Business

However the matter is not settled on Staten Island so stay tuned folks:

2 Island hospitals still plan strike if agreement isn't reached | SILive.com

allnurses Guide · Jun 20, 2015

*Update*
As of Thursday a tentative agreement was reached via mediation between several of the NYC hospitals and the New York State Nurses Association; plans for a strike have now ended pending ratification of the deal. Registered nurses will not walk out of hospitals | Crain's New York Business
However the matter is not settled on Staten Island so stay tuned folks:
2 Island hospitals still plan strike if agreement isn't reached | SILive.com

It seems as though the hospitals first tried to offer money to the nurses while wanting total control over staffing.

I think they finally agreed to hire more nurses rather than agree to ratios in the contract.

... The hospitals did not release the proposed terms of the four-year contract. As of Monday, their best and final contract on wages was 12.5% over four years: 3% upon ratification and at the start of 2016 and 2018, and 3.5% in January 2017. That is a sweetened offer from May, when the Alliance offered the registered nurses a 10% wage increase over four years: 2.5% upon ratification and 2.5% at the start of 2016, 2017 and 2018.
The Alliance hospitals also promised this week to hire another 330 nurses for filling in during absences and other instances where staffing demand increased. That concession was in response to NYSNA's demand for staffing ratios. The union also has been pushing unsuccessfully for a staffing ratio bill in Albany.
Registered nurses will not walk out of hospitals | Crain's New York Business

DoGoodThenGo · Jun 20, 2015

It seems as though the hospitals first tried to offer money to the nurses while wanting total control over staffing.
I think they finally agreed to hire more nurses rather than agree to ratios in the contract.

It is all interesting because the NYSNA had said all along money was *not* the main issue, but staffing. So they are now getting about two percent more along with an addition of three hundred and thirty new hires. However the devil will be in the details. That is who or whom decides where those new nurses go and when they are to be called.

As for the wage increase there was a bit of dirty pool in the past few weeks. It seems *someone* released to the media reports showing the wages of various executives at several NYC hospitals IIRC. These persons are being paid very good money but do not have direct patient care responsibilities. Believe the idea was to show where some of the "fat" could be cut and thus free up funds to hire more nurses.

XNavyCorpsman · Jun 24, 2015

I could NEVER strike no matter how bad things got! I can not care for my patients if I am out on the sidewalk. From what I understand, most of the things WON with striking, has nothing to do with the patient, but for the workers.

Just my thoughts.

DoGoodThenGo · Jun 25, 2015

I could NEVER strike no matter how bad things got! I can not care for my patients if I am out on the sidewalk. From what I understand, most of the things WON with striking, has nothing to do with the patient, but for the workers.
Just my thoughts.

Wherein lies the rub...

Hospitals exist to provide skilled nursing care. Your views are and have been held ever since the days of starched whites and caps. A good number of professional nurses take their "calling" that seriously enough they never would consider participating in labor action. If a strike is called they will go in regardless. They view participating in a strike as some how disloyal to their patients and profession. Fair enough, to each his or her own...

However this reluctance has been duly noted by management/administration and used to keep nurses in line. Rather like using a child to coerce, threaten and or influence the decisions/behavior of its mother.

Thing is at some point you get sick and tired of being sick and tired. Historically as nursing was mostly a female dominated profession the easy way out was to marry. If that went well enough you never had to work as a nurse (or anything else) again. That or you took another form of employment. Nursing has never been a particularly well paying profession so you could find something with better hours and conditions often for same or even an increase in wages.

Of those that remained you had a good number of self-sacrificing martyrs. They continued to go in and put up with conditions on the ground because their patients "needed" them. In the process many developed ulcers and other physical conditions related to stress. This along with wearing their bodies down from repeated injuries caused by doing things they shouldn't (like moving heavy patients without proper equipment or back-up support). Sadly there would be those that turned to self medication (pills or booze) in order to cope.

Sometimes wonder how different the nursing profession would be if it were dominated by men. That sex does not have a history of society adjuring them like a conscientious governess to be "nice", refined and altruistic. Nor are they easily put off with presents and vague promises of rewards for future good behavior.

lindarn · Jun 26, 2015

Is there anything wrong with striking for issues that benefit workers? If everyone in years past, held your attitude, then we would not have 40 hour work weeks, overtime pay, benefits, etc.

Also, patients are not, "YOURS". Patients have insurance that contracts with the hospitals to provide care. You are an agent of the hospital, not an agent of the patient.

Nurses have the mistaken belief that they have more ownership of patient care, than they do.

You are striking the hospital, not the patients. It is the hospital's responsibility to provide care givers to the patients, not yours.

If you are not there to provide care, whether on strike, or on a day off, the hospital is required to provide caregiver for the patients, not you.

Can you imagine what like would be like if the hospitals required us to find staff to work when we were off? They don't do that because it is nor our responsibility to cover staffing needs.

JMHO and my NY $0.02

Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN (ret)

Somewhere in the PACNW

allnurses Guide · Jun 26, 2015

At every strike I know of nursing management is informed in writing that if they believe nursing care is in jeopardy they should notify a picket captain. These are RN staff nurse union leaders. (They used to carry a pager, now a cell phone)

All striking nurses scheduled to work are required to be on the picket line. If management calls one or more nurses go inside to provide patient care. This is not considered crossing the line.

In 1997 I was with striking Kaiser nurses. They had "rolling Strikes". At 7:00 am night nurses helped transfer their patients to another hospital.

That afternoon a car came to the driveway to ask a question. A man was bring a woman in labor. An L&D nurse showed them to the unit, helped deliver the baby, gave report to her manager, and returned to the strike.

In 2011 during a strike a manager came to the line to find a specific RN. None of the replacement nurses were competent to use the dialysis equipment at that facility. The RN left the line for the hours needed to dialyze the patient.

DoGoodThenGo · Jul 1, 2015

As for the wage increase there was a bit of dirty pool in the past few weeks. It seems *someone* released to the media reports showing the wages of various executives at several NYC hospitals IIRC. These persons are being paid very good money but do not have direct patient care responsibilities. Believe the idea was to show where some of the "fat" could be cut and thus free up funds to hire more nurses.

Ok, found it so the "someone" is no longer unknown.

Communications Workers of America District One report takes aim at hospital CEO pay | Crain's New York Business