The nurses union at University Medical Center, which formed late last year, announced Tuesday (Sept. 24) that its members will vote on whether to strike after months of what union members say are stagnant contract negotiations with LCMC Health, the private nonprofit group that manages the public hospital.
Negotiations between LCMC and the nurses union began in March, with members pushing for increased compensation, benefits and safety measures. Nurses on the bargaining team told Verite News they are striking because management has given them no choice. An LCMC spokesperson did not immediately provide a comment on the plan for a strike vote.
Nurses have yet to set a date for the strike vote. If a majority of members vote to strike, they must give LCMC 10 days notice so that the hospital can make arrangements or renew negotiations with the union.
Hailey Dupré, a registered nurse at UMC who is on the bargaining team is worried that LCMC will accuse the union of abandoning their patients.
“We don’t want to leave our patients, but we want…them to do the right thing by us that is also right by the patients,” Dupré said.
Dupré announced the strike vote at an afternoon informational picket to hundreds of members of National Nurses United, the union that the UMC nurses joined in December 2023. Many of the members were in town for the union’s national convention.
In July, UMC nurses handed out a strike pledge at their first informational picket. While talking to the crowd about the strike vote on Tuesday (Sept. 24), Dupré said a majority of nurses at UMC signed onto the pledge, which affirms their willingness to go on strike if the bargaining team calls for one.
Dupré said the bargaining team gave hospital administration its pay proposal in late July, but LCMC hasn’t formally responded to it yet. The union also wants LCMC to commit to addressing staff shortages, which increase patient-to-nurse ratios and can negatively affect patient care, according to a 2021 study. Union member Mike Robertshaw said the way LCMC treats him makes him feel expendable.
“When nurses have a voice at the table, patients are safer and the community is better cared for,” Robertshaw said. “When nurses are treated as if they are expendable, the community is just less safe.”
Verite News reached out to LCMC for comment on the strike vote announcement and union contract negotiations, but did not immediately receive a response.
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