Locked out: Hawaii nurses barred from local hospital

HONOLULU (KHON2) — Emotions ran high at Kapiolani Medical Center when hundreds of nurses were locked out from going to work on Saturday, Sept. 14.

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The Hawaii Nurses Association said it is a hard-handed tactic to get the union to accept a new three-year contract deal and the one-day strike on Friday, Sept. 13 was over unfair labor practices.

The President of HNA is a registered nurse at Kapiolani and said the lockout on Saturday was indefinite and unnecessary.

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“The strike is the choice of the workers and this is the choice of the hospital, to lock us out,” said HNA president Rose Agas-Yuu. “What is the hospital going to do from this point, besides cut our insurance? Keep the nurses from getting paid?”

Scores of nurses turned out to clock into work on Saturday even after they received a warning via email and letter that they would be barred from entry — the lockout was confirmed in person just before 7 a.m.

“The nurses will not be allowed to work until further notice, I’m asking you respectfully to leave the property,” hospital leadership said in part to the nurses.

Officials with Kapiolani said the imposed lockout is to convince HNA to accept a three-year deal and add union nurses will maintain medical/dental benefits through the end of September 2024.

The proposed contract calls for three-day work weeks for nurses with 12-hour shifts, but Kapiolani nurses told KHON2 that their days already often can be as long as 14 or even 16 hours.

“When you cross over into October, they will have the ability to have the same benefits through COBRA,” said Gidget Ruscetta, Kapiolani Medical Center for Women & Children’s chief operating officer. “We have been corresponding, sending information to our nurses so that they can be prepared.”

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Nurses from other hospitals said it is an issue that they deal with as well and showed up to give support for the nurses at Kapiolani on Saturday.

“When I go on break, I have to give my two sick patients to another ICU nurse who already has two very sick patients,” Queen’s Cardiac Intensive Care Unit nurse Paul Silva said. “At no time is it safe for an ICU nurse to have four patients.”

The two sides — Kapiolani and HNA — do not quite see eye-to-eye on who can end the lockout.

“They’re keeping us away from the patients. That’s their choice. It’s not ours, it’s their choice.” Agas-Yuu said.

“The union has the power to stop this. It’s in their hands. And we have reached out to the union as early as this morning, and we have expressed that we are willing and available to meet,” Ruscetta said.

If there is any point of agreement, it is that local nurses are wanted back with patients.

“We want our nurses back at the bedside. We want them to be able to provide the care that we know they want to provide,” Ruscetta said.

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“We don’t want to be out here on a strike line,” Silva said. “We want to be in the hospital taking care of our patients. That’s it.”

A temporary nursing workforce has been secured at Kapiolani while the lockout is ongoing, a future date for negotiations hasn’t been confirmed.

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