Nurses at two of the Bay Area’s top-ranked hospitals are threatening to strike, joining a national conversation over the effects of understaffing in the health care industry.
The union representing nurses at Stanford Health Care and Packard Children’s Hospital announced Thursday that 85 percent of its 3,700 members voted to authorize a strike.
“We’ve been suffering from understaffing for quite some time — in some units up to a year,” said Colleen Borges, a pediatric oncology nurse and the union’s president. “We need to look competitive and offer a great package so that when new nurses come to the Bay Area, they choose to come to our hospitals.”
The Committee for Recognition of Nursing Achievement or CRONA has represented nurses at Stanford and Packard for more than 50 years.
CRONA’s contract for its Stanford and Packard nurses expired March 31.
Since January, union leaders and hospital representatives have worked to negotiate a new, agreeable contract.
Although both sides have made compromises, union leaders say that the proposed contract does not offer the wages, benefits and working conditions the nurses need and deserve.
CRONA’s decision to authorize a strike comes just weeks after more than 10,000 nurses at three of New York’s biggest hospital systems also threatened to walk out. Earlier this week, however, the New York State Nurses Association successfully negotiated a contract to hire more than 1,400 additional nurses and establish minimum ratios of nurses to patients, according to a release from the union.
Nurses at Stanford and Packard are asking for wage increases in line with the Bay Area’s escalating cost of living, better retiree medical benefits, increased protections for part-time employees and a more robust workplace violence program.
“Constant turnover and understaffing are bad for patients,” Borges said. “If Stanford and Packard want to be known for world-class care, they need to support the nurses who provide that care.”
Less than a month ago, a nurse at Stanford Hospital was attacked and seriously injured by a patient in the psychiatric unit, the Stanford Daily reported. The union is asking that the contract include a policy that would honor a nurse’s request for reassignment if the nurse has been assaulted or threatened by a patient and staffing permits it.
Authorizing a strike gives the union’s executive board the ability to call for a strike, which requires giving the hospitals at least a 10-day notice before nurses plan to walk out.
Although the union has authorized a strike the last three times their contracts have expired, they were previously able to reach an agreement with hospital representatives before striking.
Hospital representatives say they are committed to reaching an agreement that is competitive and fair for its nurses.
“We are hopeful an agreement that our nurses can be proud of and support will be reached, just as we have been able to do in past negotiations,” according to an official statement from Stanford Health Care.
The last time nurses represented by CRONA went on strike was in the summer of 2000. The strike lasted nearly 52 days and caused more than 30 nurses to resign.
