Hundreds of Ascension Seton nurses go on strike in Austin
(FOX 7 Austin)
AUSTIN, Texas - Armed with scrubs, signs and chants, hundreds of Ascension Seton Medical Center nurses showed up in the heat on Tuesday morning to participate in the largest nurse strike in Texas history.
"We might be expecting a heat index of 115 today, but there is no heat like the fire of the nurses," said Bradley Van Waus, Southern Region Director with National Nurses United. "Hell hath no fury like a nurse on strike!"
Organizing nurses, part of a union called National Nurses United, voted overwhelmingly in favor of a strike earlier this month. This comes after months of calling for safer staffing conditions and waiting for management to bargain a fair union contract.
"Ascension continues to refuse to address the actual issues that are in the hospitals," said Taylor Critendon, a union organizer and a nurse at Ascension Seton.
Nurses won a union election last September, and contract negotiations have been underway since November. But according to Critendon, both parties are at a stalemate.
"We have about 45 proposals, and they have mutually agreed on only three of them," Critendon said. "We're at the bargaining table and… they say they have nothing to give us. We're not going to waste our time anymore."
This strike is not just for nurses. Improvements, organizers say, are needed for the safety of their patients. Issues such as chronic understaffing have created problems in recent years, and nurses say that the reliability and safety of care have been impacted.
National Nurses United claims Ascension repeatedly dismissed proposed solutions, including proposals to enforce safe staffing and better nurse recruitment and retention.
"A hospital with the resources that Ascension has is refusing to sit down and honor the most basic requests for safe staffing for the patients they're supposed to serve," said Rick Levy, President of Texas AFL-CIO. "When unions use their voice to advocate for the community and the people they serve, we are all stronger. We are all better."
READ MORE
- United Airlines pilots union moves closer to strike
- Southwest Airlines pilots vote in favor of strike
- Hollywood writers' strike begins, halting tv and film production
Ascension Seton released a lengthy statement saying in part, "they are disappointed by the union’s decision to strike, but they are prepared with other nurses to temporarily replace those striking to ensure the hospital remains open and ready to serve."
The plan is to continue the strike for one full day.
"We want people in Texas to know that if you go to a Texas hospital, there will be enough nurses to take care of you. That's what the nurses are asking for. That's what the patients are asking for. We just want the CEOs who are oftentimes making millions or tens of millions of dollars to do the same thing," said Congressman Greg Casar (D-35).
Even though this strike is only set for a day, nurses will not be allowed to go back to work for another three-Ascension’s contract with temporary nurses will last for four days, and striking nurses will be locked out.
"That shows where their priorities are. They're prioritizing and protecting their profits as opposed to adequately taking care of their patients," said Critendon. "It's a tough climate, but the more power we have in the people and the community behind us, the stronger we will be."