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Nurses Strike Appalachian Hospitals for Better Patient Care |
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John L. Lewis is probably turning in his grave. The nurses at the hospitals the legendary labor leader started to help sick miners are on strike because their managers’ policies are endangering patient care.
Nearly 700 nurses, members of the United American Nurses (UAN), have been on strike at nine Appalachian Regional Healthcare (ARH) hospitals in Kentucky and West Virginia since Oct. 1. The nurses are concerned that staffing decisions and rampant mandatory overtime are preventing them from giving patients the best possible care. In contract negotiations, ARH is proposing modest pay raises, but then is demanding to cut holiday pay and increase health care premiums, effectively wiping out the raises.
Says Sarah Hunley, a registered nurse for 37 years at ARH’s hospital in Harlan, Ky.:
We’re being asked to do impossible tasks, to be responsible for too many patients. Some days we have as many as 12 patients to care for. That’s too much for one person to do without making a mistake. I tell my husband who is a retired teacher that if he makes a mistake, he can just erase the board. If a nurse makes a mistake, it could erase someone off the earth.
ARH is trying to impose its last offer, Hunley says. As soon as the nurses walked out, the company brought in replacement nurses—and now is housing some of them in vacant wings of the hospitals.
Mine Workers (UMWA) President Cecil Roberts condemned the practices of the hospital chain’s private owners.
The ARH hospitals are known as the “miners” hospitals’ for a reason—our union founded them to provide care for miners and other people from the coal fields who were being overlooked by the health care system decades ago. It’s outrageous to see that, once again, the people who are supposed to be served by these hospitals are threatened with a lower standard of care because of hospital management’s worship of the bottom line.
Many of these facilities still bear witness to their UMWA origins with photos of John L. Lewis and other UMWA members on their walls. It is outrageous to John L.’s memory for scabs and hired security guards to be paraded in front of his image.
The United Steelworkers (USW), whose 2,700 members at ARH hospitals walked out for three weeks in the spring, is also supporting the nurses. UAN represents registered nurses at the ARH facilities and USW represents certified nurse aides, licensed practical nurses, housekeepers, maintenance and clerical workers at ARH hospitals.
The communities where the nurses serve are giving them strong support. Last week, the Letcher (Ky.) Fiscal Court, the equivalent of the county council, voted unanimously for a resolution supporting the nurses.
The resolution reads in part:
The nurses provide high quality care for the citizens of Letcher County and deserve to have a labor agreement that is fair. The Letcher County Fiscal Court disapproves of and is disappointed in the hospital for using out-of-county replacement nurses to fill the position of those on strike. This will result in a lower standard of care for the citizens of Letcher County and make it more difficult to reach a fair labor agreement.
Earlier this week, state legislators joined nurses for a rally in Charleston, W.Va. In Hazard, Ky., the Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor, Daniel Mongiardo, a surgeon, refused to cross the nurses’ picket line.
Hunley is not surprised by the support. She says:
This is home to us and we like it. We like our patients—they’re our friends and neighbors and we want to give them the best care. We’re fighting a big corporate giant, but we’re right in what we’re doing.
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MORE FORCED OVERTIME TONIGHT: HOSPITAL VERSION
THE LIves OF We Nurses ARE’NT EASY,
WE WORK THROUGH THE DAY AND THE NIGHT.
ONE EMERGENCY AFTER ANOTHER
THIS KIND OF CARE IS’NT RIGHT.
HOSPITAL WORK IS BAD FOR THE FAMILY,
WE DON’T MAKE IT HOME EVERY NIGHT.
ADMINISTRATORS SAY, “LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT”
WHILE THEIR PROFITS GROW WAY OUT OF SIGHT,
BUT WORST OF ALL I’M TELLING YOU
WE CANT GO HOME WHEN SHIFT IS THROUGH
BECAUSE THERE’S:
CHORUS
MORE FORCED OVERTIME TONIGHT
I HOPE THAT I’LL BE HOME BEFORE IT’S LIGHT
OH MY FAMILY IS A GRIEVIN
AND THEIR EVEN TALKIN LEAVIN,
BUT THERE’S MORE FORCED OVERTIME TONIGHT.
DAY AFTER DAY WITH NO TIME OFF,
BEGINS TO TAKE Its TOLL,
IF YOUR TIRED YOU JUST BETTER BE THERE,
CAUSE THE BOSSES SAY ABSENCE CONTROL.
IT’S CHEAPER TO FORCE US ALL O.T.
WHILE THE JOBLESS CONTINUE TO GROW
AND PATIENTS CONTINUES TO SUFFER
WHILE THE HOSPITAL RAKES IN MORE DOUGH
TWELVE HOUR DAYS OR EVEN MORE
WHAT THE HELL WE LIVIN FOR?
CHORUS
WE CAN’T CONTINUE TO TAKE IT
IT IS TIME TO FIGHT WHERE WE STAND
FORCED OVERTIME IS JUST SLAVERY
LET’S CHANGE THE LAWS OF THE LAND.
THE CHAINS OF OUR SLAVERY ARE WAGES
THERE REASON FOR FORCING IS GREED
WHEN ALL OF THE FAMILY IS WORKING
MORE TIME OFF THE JOBS WHAT WE NEED
LET’S ALL WORK FOR A SHORTER DAY
AND NEVER MORE WELL HAVE TO SAY
CHORUS
PLEASE SEE IF THE NURSES WANT TO USE THIS. THEY CAN E-MAIL ME OR CALL AT 650-355-8102 I do have the melody on a cd. I borrowed the melody from the original songwriter with her permission.
David Hurlburt dghurlb@pacbell.net
(Because We’re Right We’ll Stand and fight) its a song if you want the melody e-mail me dghurlb@pacbell.net
We find it very, very hard to understand,
When A R Healthcare makes a million, million grand
Why they don’t bargain when we bring them our demands.
Because we’re right we’ll stand and fight.
We’ll stand and fight For patients rights.
We’ll stand and fight because we’re right
We earn for them every single dollar that they make
And now our benefits they say they want to take.
Don’t they recognize they’re making a mistake.
Because we’re right we’ll stand and fight.
We’ll stand and fight because we’re right.
It not just ours but our patients fight.
We’ll stand and fight because we’re right
Patient Care is what we’re fighting for
What A R Healthcare wants is more and more.
That’s why we’re all standing at the door.
Because we’re right we’ll stand and fight.
We’ll stand and fight because we’re right.
It not just ours but our patients fight.
We’ll stand and fight because we’re right.
Just for my Brothers and Sisters on strike at AR Healthcare
David Hurlburt CWA local 9410
Good luck UAN. This is what happens when money and profits usurp lives and livelihood. Anyone who needs hospital care deserves the right to be treated by persons who are not only experienced, but by providers who are NOT overworked, NOT short-staffed, NOT unduly stressed, and who are certainly well paid. You could bet your bottom dollar that the wealthy and politically connected have the very best care by such employees. All of us deserve the same. Nurses do an awesome job!!!
Building Bridges: Your Community and Labor Report
National Edition
Produced by Ken Nash and Mimi Rosenberg
*************************
Appalachian Nurses Strike Grinch Hospital Chain
With
Amy Scott and Andre Wilson,
Members, Local 201, West Virginia Nurses Association
Nearly 700 nurses in Kentucky and West Virginia have been striking for almost two months against pay cuts, unsafe staffing levels for patients & mandatory overtime. The Hospital system, originally owned by the Mine-workers Union, now refuses to negotiate a fair contract, intimidates workers on the picket line and has hired over 150 scabs.
*************************
Oaxaca: This is What the Uprising Looked Like
with
Jill Freidberg, Filmmaker,”A Little Bit of So Much Truth”
In the Summer of 2006, a non-violent, popular uprising exploded in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. Friedberg’s film captures the unprecedented phenomenon that emerged when tens of thousands of schoolteachers, housewives, farmers, health workers and students took over the media, using it to oganize, mobilize and defend their grassroots sturggle justice.
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