Nurses and health care workers voted on Monday to authorize strikes at three hospitals represented by the Health Professionals and Allied Employees (HPAE/AFT/AFL-CIO) in Hudson County, and a fourth hospital may be affected.
Members of HPAE, including registered nurses, health professionals, and dietary, housekeeping, and maintenance staff, voted at all-day meetings at Christ Hospital in Jersey City, Meadowlands Hospital in Secaucus, and Bayonne Medical Center in Bayonne.
HPAE members at Palisades Medical Center in North Bergen are scheduled to vote on Wednesday, May 20.
The authorization allows the negotiating committees for the nurses and health care workers to send a 10-day notice of intent to strike to their hospital managements, in the event that negotiations do not result in a fair contract settlement by May 31, the expiration date for all four contracts.
The four HPAE groups represent 2,500 healthcare workers in Hudson County, and have indicated their intention to negotiate as often as necessary until May 31.
Several sources within Bayonne Medical Center said the hospital has already contracted with possible replacement workers if a strike is authorized so that the hospital will have no break in services.
The union represents 450 registered nurses at Christ Hospital; 450 registered nurses, technical, ancillary, housekeeping, dietary, and maintenance staff at Meadowlands Hospital; 850 registered nurses, technical, ancillary, housekeeping, dietary, and maintenance staff at Bayonne Medical Center; and 800 members at Palisades Medical Center.
Demands
According to the union, the main issues are: safe staffing levels, job security, the demands by hospitals for cuts in sick time and retirement security, and increases in health insurance costs for employees.
“During these hard economic times, it is still important to maintain our patient care standards, and retain our staff,” said Ann Twomey, president of HPAE, the state’s largest healthcare union. “We can’t do that if our hospitals attempt to make severe cuts in staffing, and in the policies that help us keep our nurses and caregivers at the bedside. Our members have always made sacrifices to provide the best patient care possible under increasingly difficult conditions – and we’ve done that while hospital CEOs made increasingly larger salaries.”
HPAE members have called for a rally for health care in Bayonne this Thursday, May 21, highlighting the difficult negotiations taking place at Bayonne Medical Center with the new, for-profit ownership.
“The new motto at Bayonne Medical Center appears to be profits before patients,” complained Jeanne Otersen, spokesperson for the local union. “We think that’s backwards. For two years and more, the employees, residents and elected officials of Bayonne worked together to keep this hospital going, and to assist the owners. Employees sacrificed millions in wages and benefits to help Bayonne Medical Center survive bankruptcy, for the sake of health care in our community. We will not allow profits to come first, or for patient care to suffer as a result of the owners’ profit-driven policies that take caregivers away from the bedside.”
In a response to the strike threat, Bayonne Medical Center officials issued a statement:
“BMC was about to be closed when the current owners put up their own capital to purchase the hospital out of bankruptcy. The owners had one major goal in putting their money at risk. That goal was to operate a financially successful hospital, which would serve the residents of the greater Bayonne community for generations to come. In order to achieve that goal, the owners had to see to it that health insurance companies were paying the hospital fair rates for the care that was being rendered, and that the hospital was being operated efficiently and effectively. The preservation of as many jobs as possible was considered to be of paramount importance.”
Since that time, hospital officials said, millions of dollars of capital have been invested in new equipment and health information systems, and new programs such as PET/CT and bariatric surgery have been initiated.
“These contract negotiations are taking place during one of the most serious economic crises ever faced by our nation.” – Response from Bayonne Medical Center
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They added, “The economic crisis has further eroded the stability of New Jersey hospitals, more than 60 percent of which are experiencing operating losses. Even in this difficult economic climate, we will do everything possible to reach a fair and equitable agreement with HPAE Local 5185.”
Upcoming rally
The rally at BMC and other institutions will focus on a “back to basics” approach in hospital spending and re-focusing on bedside care and patient safety, as opposed to a focus on building expansion and spending on executives and amenities.
A recent poll taken by the union shows strong support for its back to basics approach, union officials said.
The public opinion poll explored the views of the public on hospital spending, management and nursing issues in the midst of the troubling economic environment. Highlights of the poll included:
• 72 percent thought that nurses care for too many patients at one time; and 73 percent say that “hospitals need to stop waste and mismanagement by highly-paid executives instead of trying to slash benefits for nurses who are the main providers of care.”
• A majority – 54 percent – thinks that hospital financial problems are due to waste and mismanagement on the part of hospital executives and board members.
• 84 percent want hospitals to “get back to the basics” of patient care, instead of spending on hotel-style amenities (9 percent).
HPAE also issued a “back to basics” report on the status of staffing, working conditions and hospital financial and governance practices in New Jersey, providing a checklist for consumers and health care workers to evaluate their hospital on the priorities of patient safety, bedside care, and proper oversight of patient care funding.