News From USW: Robert Wood Johnson Nurses Strike for Quality Health Care; Protest Triggered By Hospital's Failure to Bargain in Good Faith
Posted on: Thursday, 24 August 2006, 12:00 CDT
News From USW: Registered nurses at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, NJ, went on strike this morning to protest pervasive violations of federal labor law by the hospital administration, including a consistent failure to bargain in good faith over the nurses' goal of quality health care coverage and other issues, United Steelworkers Local 4-200 announced here today.
In charges filed with the National Labor Relations Board, the union contends that the hospital unlawfully offered terms and conditions of employment directly to its employees without first bargaining over those terms and conditions with the employees' representatives, and that the hospital has illegally interrogated, threatened and coerced employees to try and dissuade them from exercising their right to strike.
An estimated 800 to 1,000 nurses began walking picket lines at 7:00 a.m. to protest the hospital's failure to bargain in good faith for a new labor agreement. The nurses had been working under an extension of their old contract, which expired on June 30.
The failure to bargain in good faith, coupled with the hospital's other violations of federal law, have obstructed efforts to improve conditions at the hospital, especially their inadequate health care coverage, nurses say.
"Our 1,300 nurses work with some of the finest physicians in the country to deliver the highest quality health care to our patients," said local union president Jerry Collins, "but our health coverage doesn't provide the same level of care for ourselves and our families.
"We've made Robert Wood Johnson the premier health-care facility in the state," he explained, "but most of the doctors we work with won't accept the hospital's substandard insurance."
Hospital administration is taking a hard line in labor negotiations over health care coverage for a nursing staff that has consistently won national awards for nursing excellence in patient care.
The USW has proposed a superior health care plan that would actually cost the hospital less money than its own proposals. But the hospital has insisted on maintaining their inferior and more expensive plan.
"Instead of recognizing that nurses and our families deserve the same quality health care we provide our patients and bargaining in good faith, hospital administrators claim they know what's best for us and resort to threats and intimidation to undermine support for the union and deny our members' rights," Collins said.
The United Steelworkers represents more than 850,000 North American union members working in a wide range of manufacturing and service industries, including 35,000 members in the USW Health Care Workers Council.
Source: Business Wire
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