Union decries hospital's 'blatant attempt' to intimidate nurses

New Jersey nurses and health professionals held a day of action in April when more than 300 people rallied and picketed in front of a local hospital for their right to unionize and be protected when they speak out on patient care issues.

The contract between the 700 nurses represented by Health Professionals and Allied Employees (HPAE) and Virtua Memorial Hospital in Mount Holly, N.J., expired March 31, and the hospital notified the union of its intent to terminate the contract with the local on April 9, in what the union called a “blatant attempt to intimidate us into signing a contract without basic patient or professional protections.”

“Without our union, we could not negotiate over working conditions, patient care and staffing standards, nor could we speak out freely on these issues without concern for our jobs,” says Joan Johnson, president of HPAE Local 5105, which represents 700 nurses at the hospital. “Our patients’ best interests are directly linked with our right to speak up.”

Virtua is one of a dozen hospitals that HPAE is negotiating contracts with this year. The union is fighting for safe staffing levels, the establishment of a retiree medical trust fund and the continued union representation of rotating “charge nurses.” For months now, healthcare unions have been awaiting a decision by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) that would give hospitals the option of stripping union representation from nurseswho are considered supervisors.. Although that decision has yet to be handed down, Virtua has publicly announced that it will preserve its “right” to eliminate from the union nurses who take on supervisory duties, and apparently has hired a well-known anti-union consultant for advice.

“Virtua is the first hospital we know of in the country attempting to exploit an opportunity handed them by our federal government to try to rob nurses of their legal protection to speak up for their profession and their patients,” says Johnson. “This rally is our answer to Virtua and any other hospital that tries to take away the right of nursing and health professionals to act together for the protection of our patients and our professions,” says HPAE president Ann Twomey. “For our patients, and for our colleagues, we are taking a stand today.”