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Some Nurses Allowed Back to Work, Others Are Not
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- Jennifer DiPietro fully expected to be back at work this morning following Tuesday's one-day nurses' strike at Northside Medical Center. Instead, she doesn't know when she'll return.
"Some of us were allowed to go to work, and some of us were instructed that we are not allowed to go to work," she said. "We just want to be here to take care of our patients."
Many of those reporting for work Wednesday morning received letters stating when they would expect to be called back on the job, DiPietro said. "I did not receive a letter at all," she said.
Pickets went back up outside the hospital after nurses learned, one-by-one, whether they can come back to work following Tuesday's strike, which Community Health Systems claims violated federal labor law.
The nurses, members of the Youngstown General Duty Nurses Association, lined up on the hospital steps. They were let into the entrance on an individual basis and handed a letter notifying them of when -- if at all -- they can return to work. Union members took a vote that affirmed the return to work of those nurses that CHS is permitting back.
Nurses who were scheduled to work Tuesday and instead joined the picket lines are not being permitted to return today; those who were not scheduled to work Tuesday were allowed to return.
CHS said in a statement that it had contracted the replacement workers for a period of 72 hours.
"To ensure uninterrupted quality care for our patients, the hospital contracted with highly qualified replacement nurses to temporarily fill positions left vacant by nurses scheduled to work during the period of the strike who did not report for duty. The replacement nurses were engaged for a seventy-two hour period," the company said.
About 70 nurses were gathered outside the hospital along Gypsy Lane this morning carrying signs that displayed their frustrations. "I Came To Work Today!" read one placard. "Unlock the Door to Patient Care," read another.
"We're totally united," said DiPietro, a registered nurse in the emergency room. "If you're scheduled to go to work, then we've said go to work."
Many of the nurses who joined the strike have been given varying return-to-work dates -- some on Friday, for instance, others next week.
Colleen Beil, a registered nurse at Northside, said she reported to work this morning, but received a letter stating that she could not return to work until Friday.
"They selectively gave lockout letters," she said. "They let some nurses in, they locked out other ones. We all have different return dates."
Among those who have not been given any return-to-work date is Eric Williams, president of the labor union.
"They've locked me out," Williams said. At least 30 – probably more – of the union's nurses were allowed to enter the building and work their shift this morning, he added. "Everybody has different return-to-work dates," he said. Williams has not received any notification about returning to work.
Others are still trying to determine why some nurses were allowed to return to work while others were told not to.
"We're trying to sort through the reasons why people are in and why people are out," said Kelly Trautner, deputy executive officer at the Ohio Nurses Association.
Trautner said some of those nurses allowed to enter the hospital were then given letters and came back out. "We don't know what that means yet."
The union executive said she and others expected all of the nurses to be back on the job this morning.
"We did not expect this at all," she said. "The signs – the nurses just made them – we were not planning to picket. We were planning for everyone to be in there with their patients."
The nurses first and foremost want to care for the patients at Northside, Trautner continued. However, she said CHS has placed language in its final contract offer that prevents the nurses' union from addressing key issues such as job duties, work load and safety measures.
As for future bargaining sessions, Trautner said she has not idea when talks could resume.
"The employer has not given us any dates for bargaining," she explained. "We have communicated our willingness to bargain 24/7. This is going to get settled at the bargaining table. We just need them to meet us there."
Meanwhile, work halted Tuesday on Northside Medical Center’s expansion and renovation project, as union building trades recognized the one-day strike by registered nurses at the hospital. Labor leaders see the contract dispute as part of a larger fight with management and specifically the for-profit Community Health Systems.
“Go by that construction site, brothers and sisters. There isn’t one construction worker on the job today,” exhorted Fran Lawrence, executive vice president of the American Federation of Teachers and a Youngstown native, at Tuesday morning's rally staged in support of the Youngstown General Duty Nurses Association’s one-day walkout at Northside. “That is solidarity. That is union solidarity,” she added.
The AFT earlier this year affiliated with the Ohio Nurses Association, and YGDNA is a chapter of ONA.
The cause “is not just important for us,” or ONA or Ohio but for the entire nation, advised Kelly Trautner, ONA deputy director. “Everybody is watching us,” she remarked.
Members of YGDNA, the ONA affiliate that represents registered nurses at Northside, have been without a contract for more than a year. Lawrence noted that there has been “significant change” since the last contract YGDNA negotiated with Northside, before bought the assets of the bankrupt Forum Health Inc. three years ago.
“We know they’ve been trying to impose a cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all approach at all of their hospitals, and we know that a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t fit every hospital,” Lawrence said. “You know what works here at Northside.”
Among the local, state and national labor leaders who joined the striking nurses, Tim Burga, Ohio AFL-CIO president, told the crowd at the rally that he saw the same determination and courage in the eyes of the striking nurses as he did in the eyes of steelworkers in 1979, when he engaged in his first wildcat strike.
“This is not just your fight. This is an important fight,” Burga said. “I’m here to thank you because you’re rejecting the vision of this management of what they believe the ‘new normal’ should be. The new normal of no workers’ rights, the new normal of substandard wages and the new normal that corporations could make ungodly amounts of profits and those that work hard, deliver the services [and] take care of your community do not have any rights or cannot share in any of that profit.”
Bill Padisak, president of the Mahoning-Trumbull Central Labor Council, representing 65 unions, also thanked members of the building trades for walking off the job at the Northside project and honoring the picket line. “You have the support of all of the unions in the Valley,” he said. “This is the first step. Keep fighting. Be strong.” .
Shortly after the one-day walkout began at 7 a.m., labor leaders warned that the standoff between the union representing registered nurses there and Northside’s owners was just the first step.
“You know that if they break the nurses here in Youngstown ... there is a plan, right?” Nate Gunderson, an AFT organizer with the American Federation of Teachers who later in the day was engaged in in a minor confrontation with security when he took pickets onto hospital property, told picketers.
“I can’t think of anything more powerful than watching you nurses walk out of that hospital this morning. You are so courageous and strong,” Trautner remarked to the picketers. “We’re going to get a contract that gives you the voice to speak up for your patients and protect your community.”
Gunderson noted recently announced plans by CHS and the Cleveland Clinic to purchase the assets of Akron General Health System. “So this isn’t about Youngstown. This is about Ohio. This is about nursing care in Ohio. This is about how patients will be treated in Ohio.”
On Aug. 27, Sharon Regional Health System, based in Sharon, Pa., announced plans to affiliate with Community Health Systems "iin a strategic transaction that will result in capital investments and other resources to help position Sharon Regional for future long-term success."
Steve Rooney, president of the National Federation of Nurses, took the warning a step further. “You are out here also on the front lines of the battle for nurses across the country because what’s going on here in Youngstown is going on across the country,” he said.
Community Health Systems Inc. currently owns, leases or operates 135 hospitals in 29 states with an aggregate of approximately 20,000 licensed beds. Net operating revenues for the six months ended June 30 totaled $6.548 billion, a 0.1% increase compared with $6.540 billion for the same period in 2012.
In a statement issued shortly after the strike began, Northside said it was “continuing to provide high-quality care for its patients” during the strike. “All inpatient, outpatient and emergency services are available and diagnostic procedures are taking place as scheduled,” according to the news release. It advised that Northside was “fully prepared” for the strike and all areas would be staffed “with highly skilled nurses and other health professionals.”
Replacement nurses were brought in from across the country, said Minh Nguyen, AFT assistant director.
MORE COVERAGE:
CHS Amends $7.6 Billion Merger Deal with HSA
Pickets Cross Onto Hospital Property, Security Responds
Northside Hospital Says Strike Doesn't Impact Care
Union, Hospital Filing Charges as Nurses Stage Strike
Northside Files Unfair Labor Charges, Threatens Firings
Legislators Urge Northside to Resume Negotiations
ValleyCare Prepares for 1-Day strike at Northside
Copyright 2013 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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