UPDATE: May 2, 2022: Nurses reached a tentative agreement with the system Friday on new contracts that include language ensuring staffing is based on acuity, across-the-board base wage increases and an additional week of vacation time, among other provisions, according to the union.
Nurses voted Sunday and if they ratify the deal they will return to work Tuesday under new contracts, according to the union.
Dive Brief:
- Nearly 5,000 nurses at two Stanford hospitals in Northern California walked off the job Monday in a bid for better staffing and other measures in new contracts, according to the Committee for Recognition of Nursing Achievement, which represents the nurses.
- The strike has no set end date and will continue until the two sides reach an agreement on new contracts. The hospital and union met for a negotiation session Tuesday.
- Stanford hired replacement nurses but is reducing some services and rescheduling some elective procedures as needed, according to an emailed statement from the health system.
Dive Insight:
The California nurses are the latest to wage a strike as healthcare workers nationwide continue to experience staffing shortages and burnout two years into the pandemic.
Stanford nurses are pushing for new contracts that focus heavily on recruitment and retention of nursing staff.
They’re also seeking enhanced wages and benefits to reward nurses who stay with the hospitals and recruit new nurses to permanent positions while addressing the cost of living and inflation in the Bay Area, according to the union. They’re also asking for improved access to time off and more mental health support.
A survey of CRONA nurses conducted in November 2021 found that as many as 45% were considering quitting their jobs, according to the union.
Stanford nurses’ contracts expired March 31. The union and system have engaged in more than 30 bargaining sessions over the past three months, including with a federal mediator, according to the union.
On Tuesday, the union delivered a letter to the hospitals’ Board of Trustees asking for their support in ensuring nurses get fair contracts, and urging them to have hospital administrators rescind a decision to cut striking nurses’ healthcare benefits.
The hospital said it advised nurses on strike to continue their health coverage through COBRA, according to a statement.
“This standard practice is not unique to our hospitals and applies to any of our employees who are not working, are on unpaid status, and are not on an approved leave,” Stanford said in the statement.
Last year, when a nurse’s strike at Catholic Health’s Mercy Hospital reached the one-month mark, the hospital announced it was cutting off striking workers health coverage until a tentative agreement was ratified. Within days the two sides reached a deal to bring those on the picket line back to work.
Nurses elsewhere also have walked off the job indefinitely. Staffing was a central issue in those work stoppages, too.
Last year, nurses at a Tenet hospital in Massachusetts waged a nine-month long strike, while 2,000 healthcare workers at Catholic Health System’s Mercy Hospital in Buffalo, New York waged a nearly 40-day strike.
Healthcare workers employed by Kaiser Permanente in Southern California threatened and voted in favor of an open-ended strike last year, though the system made a deal with the unions just before upwards of 28,000 employees had planned to walk off the job.
Correction: A previous version of this story mischaracterized the proposed wage increases in the tentative agreement. Under the agreement, nurses will receive raises of 7% in the first year of the contract, then two 5% raises in the second and third years.