Thousands of Stanford nurses in California wage strike with no end date

Dive Transient:

• Practically 5,000 nurses at two Stanford hospitals in Northern California walked off the job Monday in a bid for higher staffing and different measures in new contracts, in accordance with the Committee for Recognition of Nursing Achievement, which represents the nurses.
• The strike has no set finish date and can proceed till the 2 sides attain an settlement on new contracts. The hospital and union met for a negotiation session Tuesday.
• Stanford employed alternative nurses however is decreasing some companies and rescheduling some elective procedures as wanted, in accordance with an emailed assertion from the well being system.

Dive Perception:

The California nurses are the newest to wage a strike as healthcare staff nationwide proceed to expertise staffing shortages and burnout two years into the pandemic.      

Stanford nurses are pushing for new contracts that focus closely on recruitment and retention of nursing employees.

They’re additionally searching for enhanced wages and advantages to reward nurses who stick with the hospitals and recruit new nurses to everlasting positions whereas addressing the price of dwelling and inflation within the Bay Space, in accordance with the union. They’re additionally asking for improved entry to day off and extra psychological well being assist.

A survey of CRONA nurses carried out in November 2021 discovered that as many as 45% had been contemplating quitting their jobs, in accordance with the union.

Stanford nurses’ contracts expired March 31. The union and system have engaged in additional than 30 bargaining periods over the previous three months, together with with a federal mediator, in accordance with the union.

On Tuesday, the union delivered a letter to the hospitals’ Board of Trustees asking for his or her assist in guaranteeing nurses get honest contracts, and urging them to have hospital directors rescind a choice to lower hanging nurses’ healthcare advantages.

The hospital mentioned it suggested nurses on strike to proceed their well being protection by COBRA, in accordance with a press release.

“This commonplace observe just isn’t distinctive to our hospitals and applies to any of our workers who usually are not working, are on unpaid standing, and usually are not on an accepted depart,” Stanford mentioned within the assertion.

Final yr, when a nurse’s strike at Catholic Well being’s Mercy Hospital reached the one-month mark, the hospital introduced it was chopping off hanging staff well being protection till a tentative settlement was ratified. Inside days the 2 sides reached a deal to carry these on the picket line again to work.

Nurses elsewhere even have walked off the job indefinitely. Staffing was a central subject in these work stoppages, too. 

Final yr, nurses at a Tenet hospital in Massachusetts waged a nine-month lengthy strike, whereas 2,000 healthcare staff at Catholic Well being System’s Mercy Hospital in Buffalo, New York waged an almost 40-day strike.

Healthcare staff employed by Kaiser Permanente in Southern California threatened and voted in favor of an open-ended strike final yr, although the system made a take care of the unions simply earlier than upwards of 28,000 workers had deliberate to stroll off the job.