Nurses Taking Action to Protect the Health, Safety, and Welfare of Patients and Workers

Registered nurses at Washington Hospital Center (MWHC), part of the Medstar Health hospital chain,will hold a one-day strike commencing Monday, Dec. 22 at 7 a.m. and ending Tuesday, Dec. 23. at 6:59 a.m.

Nurses will hold a rally on Monday to speak out on the conditions that led to the strike, including unfair labor practices and hospital executives' refusal to fairly address matters of health, safety and equity for patients and nurses.
 
In response to the announced one-day strike, Medstar management has threatened the nurses with a ten-day lock-out, unnecessarily extending the period of time that the registered nursing staff would be away from the bedside. Medstar's claims that 10 day lock-outs are standard in the hospital industry are absolutely false, nurses say, citing last month's one day strike at Providence Hospital in Washington DC and two-day strike at Kaiser hospitals throughout Northern California, in which there were no lock-outs. If Medstar implements a lock-out, they are essentially punishing union members for exercising their rights and advocating for their patients, nurses say.

Striking RNs will have a Patient Protection Task Force on the picket line available to provide emergency assistance after the strike begins and will assign a nurse to stabilize a patient requiring specialized skills if necessary.

"We have raised serious concerns about safe staffing and clinical practices and received no adequate response from management. We are moving forward with this strike because our patients' lives are at stake,” said Mindy Blandon, RN.

“Washington Hospital Center management routinely and dangerously understaffs nurses, putting patients at risk,” said Gandessa Orteza, RN. “Poor staffing, substandard pay and unsafe working conditions have led to high turnover in bedside nurses and this attrition undermines the quality of care patients receive."

What: Nurses Rally at Medstar Washington Hospital Center   
When: Monday, Dec. 22, 2014 – 12 pm, noon
Where: Wangari Gardens near the intersection of Irving and Kenyon Streets – just west of Medstar Washington Hospital Center (110 Irving Street N.W.)

Nurses are striking because of unfair labor practices and because hospital management has been unwilling to work to solve patient care concerns, particularly safe staffing, and unwilling to fairly address inequities in nurses’ wages or threats to their benefits.  
 
On November 26 hospital executives acted unilaterally, and what nurses believe to be illegally, in implementing what they call their “last, best and final” offer and declared an impasse, despite the fact that the registered nurse were ready and willing to continue negotiations with hospital executives to protect quality patient care and safe working conditions.  Real progress is possible, despite management’s unfair labor practices, nurses say, as long as both sides commit to negotiating with a focus on patient care and fairness.

Nurses voted in late November to reject the hospitals final offer at the bargaining table and to authorize a strike. Medstar Washington Hospital Center management received 10 days advance notice from NNU to postpone elective surgeries, transfer out any patients as needed, and make other preparations needed.

National Nurses United is the nation’s largest direct-care registered nurses union, representing 190,000 members, including 4,400 RNs in the District of Columbia.  NNOC/NNU represents RNs at facilities that include Providence Hospital, Washington Hospital Center, Children’s Hospital, United Medical Center, Howard University Hospital and the Department of Veterans Affairs.