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Nurses

A Nurse Buys Protective Supplies For Colleagues; The Hospital Suspends Her

April 9, 2020 Marshall Allen, ProPublica. , , ,
Olga Matievskaya and her fellow intensive care nurses at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center in New Jersey were so desperate for gowns and masks to protect themselves from the coronavirus that they turned to the online fundraising site GoFundMe to raise money. The donations flowed in — more than $12,000 — and Matievskaya used some of them to buy about 500 masks, 4,000 shoe covers and 150 jumpsuits. She and her colleagues at the hospital celebrated protecting themselves and their patients from the spread of the virus. But rather than thanking the staff, hospital administrators on Saturday suspended Matievskaya for distributing “unauthorized” protective gear. Across the country, front-line medical providers and hospital administrators are butting heads about precautions against the coronavirus pandemic.

Nurses Unions: ‘Our Members Are Dying. We Demand Protections Now!’

April 9, 2020 National Nurses United. , , ,
As COVID-19 cases continue to skyrocket in the United States, unions representing 230,000 nurses across the country have joined forces to demand hospitals and the government act now to give nurses optimal personal protective equipment (PPE)—including N95 respirators or higher—a demand made more dire due to the fact that nurses are beginning to die of COVID-19. National Nurses United (comprising the California Nurses Association, the D.C. Nurses Association, the Minnesota Nurses Association, and National Nurses Organizing Committee— including RNs in Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Missouri, Texas, West Virginia, and Veterans Affairs facilities in a dozen other states,) along with the New York State Nurses Association, (NYSNA) the Massachusetts Nurses Association, and the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals (PASNAP) are calling on employers and the government to stop treating nurses as if their lives are expendable. 

How Nurses Got Masks

April 8, 2020 Elizabeth Lalasz, Labor Notes. , , ,
I am a registered nurse at Cook County Hospital, the safety-net hospital in Chicago and the busiest hospital in the state. The people who come to this hospital are some of the most underserved patients, mainly people of color, immigrants—many undocumented, the uninsured and underinsured, the homeless, and the incarcerated. Our emergency room denies no one care and about 300 people per day come there for treatment. We have yet to become a COVID-19 “hot spot” but my co-workers all know it’s coming. Nurses know our patients will be some of the hardest hit. Already my hospital has changed drastically. We now have a whole section of the emergency room for COVID-19 patients, with isolation rooms. The critical care areas (for the severely ill) and the medical surgical units (for the less ill), where I work, also have COVID-19-only areas.

After 42 Test Positive For COVID-19, Nurses In Western Pennsylvania Walk Off Job

April 3, 2020 Mike Elk, Pay Day Report. , , ,
Pittsburgh, PA - On Thursday, dozens of nurses, members of SEIU Healthcare PA, walked off at the Brighton Rehab and Wellness Center in Western Pennsylvania’s Beaver County.  The walk-off came after 36 elderly residents and six healthcare workers at the nursing home tested positive for COVID-19. Already, two senior citizens at the facility have died of COVID-19.  Nurses at the facility say that they haven’t been given N-95 masks to wear around residents. After days of the union being rebuffed in its attempt to meet with management to discuss safety issues and hazard pay, nurses on the job walked off on Wednesday.  “Financially, I probably shouldn’t make that decision, but it’s not about finances. It’s about my health and another person’s health,” Nurse Tamera Witherspoon told CBS Pittsburgh. 

Survey Of Nation’s Frontline Registered Nurses Shows Hospitals Unprepared For COVID-19

March 7, 2020 Staff, Nationalnursesunited.org , , ,
A nationwide survey National Nurses United (NNU) conducted of registered nurses, the country’s frontline health care staff, reveals that the vast majority of United States hospitals and health care facilities are unprepared to handle and contain cases of COVID-19. The results were shared at a press conference held Thursday by NNU, the country’s largest union and professional association of registered nurses.

Iowa Nurses Win Fair Contract At MercyOne Hospital

February 7, 2020 Mike Kuhlenbeck, Workers.org , , ,
The union nurses of MercyOne Siouxland Medical Center ratified a new contract Jan. 29. After rejecting the hospital’s original offer and threatening to strike, they won a fair contract and scored a victory for nurse and patient safety. The nurses, represented by Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 222, fought during seven months of intense negotiations for a contract with competitive wages and benefits, improved workplace safety and safe nurse-to-patient ratios. 

Nurses Are Leading Strike Efforts — Where Are The Physicians?

April 21, 2019 Michael Pappas, Left Voice. , , ,
The U.S. healthcare “system” is completely and utterly broken. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the U.S. system ranks 37th in the world, all while spending dramatically more on healthcare than other wealthy countries. Tens of millions remain without any health insurance coverage. For many, medical bills can mean economic ruin—some surveys show that up to 66.5% of all bankruptcies in the U.S. are a result of medical expenses. On the front lines of this system are nurses and physicians—individuals who, by and large, decided to go into the profession to help patients and communities—are becoming more frustrated by their inability to do just that, sometimes even causing providers to leave the profession.

Out Of Patience: NYC Nurses Take On Hospitals For Better Staffing

April 5, 2019 Peter Rugh, Indypendent.org , , , ,
How do you know when your employees are unsatisfied? When they vote by a 97 percent margin to authorize a strike. And if you think these workers are displeased, you should talk to their customers — or rather, their patients. They complain of waiting in emergency rooms for hours, sometimes days; of lying on stretchers in hallways among surplus medical supplies, their fellow ill and bloody infirm limping and coughing past them; of clicking their attendant button and waiting and wondering when someone will arrive to alleviate their suffering.

#RedforMed: 1,800 Vermont Nurses Are On Strike Demanding Their Hospital Put Patients Over Profits

July 14, 2018 Rachel Johnson, Inthesetimes.com , , ,
Ranked 47th for pay in the nation. High turnover, stagnant wages, and chronic staffing shortages—sound familiar? You’d be forgiven for thinking these figures refer to the working conditions of West Virginia teachers, or those in any of the red states that erupted in strikes during this spring’s teacher rebellion. But, in fact, these figures describe the daily realities confronting nurses in none other than the widely-hailed progressive state of Vermont. On Thursday, 1,800 nurses and 300 health professionals at the University of Vermont Medical Center (UVMMC) began a two-day strike to demand more for themselves and their patients. At the center of the strike are issues related to safe staffing, competitive pay and calls for a hospital-wide $15 minimum wage.

Nurse Fights ‘Collective Punishment’ Of Trump Inauguration Protesters

November 16, 2017 Mark Hand, thinkprogress.org , , ,
By Mark Hand for Think Progress - Britt Lawson, a registered nurse from Pittsburgh, traveled to Washington in January to serve as a volunteer medic for a weekend of protest activities against president-elect Donald Trump. Lawson ended up spending most of the weekend incarcerated by the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD). She and more than 200 other people, including journalists and legal observers, were indiscriminately rounded up by police on inauguration day and thrown into jail. “I went to D.C. to use the skills I’ve learned as a nurse in order to support and care for folks standing up against what I view as a system of violence and oppression that will be made worse under a Trump administration,” Lawson said in an interview. In an unprecedented move, U.S. federal prosecutors turned what would have been a normal legal response to a protest — presenting charges to a court against specific protesters who engage in vandalism or violence — into a broader attack on dissent. They charged Lawson and her fellow arrestees — who have become known as the “J20” resistance — with several felonies that could send them to prison for more than 60 years. Out of the legal scramble, Lawson emerged as part of a group of seven defendants who will be first in line to have their cases heard in D.C. Superior Court. Under the current schedule, her trial will start Wednesday and is expected to last at least two weeks.

Allina Nurses Go All In

June 23, 2016 Alexandra Bradbury, www.labornotes.org , , ,
By Alexandra Bradbury for Labor Notes - Sometimes solidarity comes shaped like a popsicle. That’s what one nursing assistant, on her way in for the evening shift at United Hospital in St. Paul, delivered to nurses picketing in blazing 95-degree heat. Five thousand members of the Minnesota Nurses (MNA) walked out June 19, kicking off a weeklong strike at five Allina hospitals in the Twin Cities. The immediate sticking point is health insurance, but this is also a showdown over nurses’ power on the job, as Allina pushes to hand over staffing decisions to a robot.

Twin Cities Nurses Face Battle Over Health Benefits, Staffing

June 22, 2016 Anthony Bertolt and Matt Rigel, www.wsws.org ,
By Anthony Bertolt and Matt Rigel for WSWS - Nearly 5,000 nurses in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area in Minnesota are in the third day of a weeklong strike against the demands by Allina Health to slash health care benefits and increase workloads on already overburdened nurses. The hospital chain is remaining intransigent and no new talks have been scheduled. Nurses are overwhelmingly opposed to the health care cuts, which would save Allina $10 million a year by imposing higher out-of-pocket costs on nurses.

Union Workers Demand SF General Hospital Hire More Nurses

February 27, 2016 Noah Arroyo, www.missionlocal.org , ,
By Noah Arroyo for Mission Local - Union staff and hospital workers on Thursday revived a long-standing dispute over staffing levels at San Francisco General Hospital. About 200 workers and members of Service Employees International Union Local 1021 picketed outside the hospital’s entrance at noon, calling for administrators to end a nurse shortage that has persisted for about 10 years, they said. The hospital will soon open its new facilities, named after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, but protesters said that existing departments are already in a dire state and need attention now.

NY State Nurses Strike In Capital Area

January 8, 2016 Staff, www.nysna.org , , ,
By Staff of NYSNA - GLOVERSVILLE, NY – 130 RNs from the New York State Nurses Association at Nathan Littauer Hospital in Gloversville will walk off the job for a 1-day unfair labor practice strike on Wednesday January 6th. Last June, Nathan Littauer RNs overwhelmingly voted to give their bargaining team authorization to issue a ten-day notice of a strike, if Nathan Littauer continued its unlawful conduct and if the hospital management refused to negotiate on proposals concerning patient care.

California Nurses Strike For Better Care & Better Working Conditions

May 8, 2015 Kate Aronoff, www.wagingnonviolence.org , ,
Five thousand nurses throughout California, represented by National Nurses United and the California Nurses Association, are holding a mix of one and two-day strikes over the next two days. Picketing for 1,100 nurses and their supporters began at 7 a.m. on Thursday at Kaiser Permanente’s Los Angeles Medical Center, and will start early Friday at Providence Little Company of Mary Medical Center in Torrance, Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica and other hospitals. Workers, many of them employed by some of the state’s largest non-profit health care companies, are calling for wage increases, a traditional demand for union contract fights, along with improved staffing policies to improve patient safety. “As the healthcare industry continues to change, the role of the registered nurse remains the same, to advocate for our patients,” said Intensive Care Unit registered nurse Heather Garrant in Torrance.
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