RNs say Ascension is punishing them for speaking up for safety

Registered nurses at two Ascension hospitals in Wichita, Kansas, are outraged today as Ascension management has locked them out for days following nurses’ one-day strike on July 6. The nurses at Ascension Via Christi St. Francis and St. Joseph hospitals, who are represented by National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United (NNOC/NNU), say the move is an obvious retaliatory punishment for striking.

“There’s no reason we can’t go into our hospitals today and take care of our patients,” said Courtney Callum, RN in the emergency department at St. Joseph. “We might actually get a taste of safe staffing that way. Instead, Ascension management has decided to punish us for striking for patient and staff safety.”

Nurses at the two hospitals struck Monday over longstanding concerns about patient and staff safety at their facilities and Ascension management’s refusal to address this issues in on-going contract bargaining.

“We need Ascension to listen to us and work with us on implementing easy solutions,” said Ann Vittitow, RN in the emergency department at St. Francis. “Instead, they are punishing us for standing up for our patients, our co-workers, and ourselves. We’re demanding safe hospitals and responsible management, and Ascension is working against us, not with us, on making that happen.”

RNs at Ascension Via Christi St. Francis and St. Joseph unionized in 2022 and 2023, and won a historic first contract in 2024. NNOC/NNU represents nearly 1,200 nurses at St. Francis and St. Joseph hospitals.

National Nurses United is the largest and fastest-growing union and professional association of registered nurses in the United States with more than 225,000 members nationwide. NNU affiliates include California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, DC Nurses Association, Michigan Nurses Association, Minnesota Nurses Association, and New York State Nurses Association.