Strikes: Helpful or Harmful?

Why do nurses strike?

I’ve been fascinated by this question because I know that nurses have to be pushed pretty far before they resort to staying home from work.

I got to thinking about this question again because of the news I heard today regarding registered nurses at three Central California hospitals who decided to cancel a five-day strike that would’ve started Oct. 19. They called off the strike because “management expressed a commitment to continue to meet at the bargaining table until a contract is reached,” according to an account in the Ventura County Star.

The 1,400 nurses at these three hospitals have concerns about staffing, patient care and wages.

The union says the nurses want a 6.5 percent salary increase for this year, followed by a 5.5 percent increase for each of the next two years. The hospitals say these demands could threaten their ability to operate.

The union says the hospitals are reducing support staff, which leaves nurses less time to spend with patients. It also contends that staffing should be calculated not only by the number of patients but also by the severity of illnesses and the amount of care required, as California state law requires.

The hospitals counter that they meet or exceed all of the state’s staffing guidelines.

I’m sympathetic to the nurses because—well, I am one and I can remember the years I worked in hospitals and how administration took advantage of nurses. It asked us to work off the clock, gave no thought to our breaks and scheduled us for three different shifts in one week. Back then, there was no such thing as time-and-a-half or voluntary 10-hour or 12-hour shifts, but it would’ve taken a whole lot more abuse before any of us uttered the word strike.

We felt committed and helpless.

I’m glad that most of today’s nurses have more clout.

On the other hand, I spoke recently to a neighbor whose wife was in the hospital for just under 24 hours and the bill was almost $13,000. Health care costs just keep rising and one wonders when the whole system will implode.

I can understand how the hospitals are concerned about costs, but nurses are their most precious asset, even though on the ledger, they are considered liabilities. (Salaries of all employees make up about 50 percent of hospital budgets.)

A hospital’s reputation rests almost entirely on the care people receive at the bedside by nurses. So administrators might consider taking some of those big bucks they spend on marketing and inflated CEO salaries and hire a few more nurses and/or raise a few of their salaries—or both.

What do you think?

Do you understand and or sympathize with your hospital’s position on holding down costs?

Should there be a re-prioritization of revenue, giving more to nurses and less to administration?

Have your co-workers ever considered striking?