Stanford Health, Packard Children's nurses plan strike
- Tina Reed, author ofAxios Vitals
An image of the open letter planned to run in the San Francisco Chronicle. Courtesy of CRONA
A union representing thousands of nurses at Stanford Health Care and Packard Children's Hospital has a full-page ad in the San Francisco Chronicle on Friday calling for support for nurses who've reached a "breaking point."
Why it matters: It's the latest move by the union, the Committee for Recognition of Nursing Achievement, to engender community support after thousands of its members voted to approve a strike next week after contract negotiations broke down.
- They are seeking improved pay and benefits, better staffing and mental health support, including more paid time off in the wake of the stress of the pandemic, they said.
- "Nurses are not invincible heroes," the letter says.
The big picture: It's just one of a number of labor actions threatened by health care workers around the country.
- Sutter Health nurses recently walked off for a day.
- Alleging anti-union behavior, Providence Health nurses in Oregon threatened this week to strike while Howard University Hospital nurses picketed in D.C. earlier this month.
What they're saying: "Maybe it was naive of me. But I was expecting them to say ... 'Thanks for helping us weather one of the most horrific pandemics humanity has seen in the modern era,' and then show gratitude through our contractural process. They did not," Mark O'Neill, a Stanford health nurse, told Axios. "Their proposals were all about how they could keep us at the hospital longer."
The other side: "At Stanford Health Care and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford, we value our nurses and have proposed highly competitive contract terms, including market-leading pay and proposals that further our commitment to enhanced nurse staffing and wellness," said Dale Beatty, chief nurse executive and vice president of patient care services for Stanford Health Care in a statement.
- He pointed to a hospital website for details on the negotiations.
Editor’s note: The headline of this story has been changed to reflect that the nurses planning the strike are from Stanford Health Care and Packard Children’s Hospital in Palo Alto, not San Francisco.