Posted on: Tuesday, June 5, 2001
Moloka'i nurses optimistic about end to monthlong strike
By Timothy Hurley
Advertiser Maui County Bureau
KAUNAKAKAI, Moloka'i — With a strike by the nurses at Moloka'i General Hospital entering its fourth week, both sides expressed a measure of optimism yesterday that a scheduled meeting Friday with a federal mediator will resolve the conflict.
Union and management officials said they were hoping to meet sooner, but no mediator was available until Friday.
"It's been a long time financially and emotionally," said Caroldean Kahue, chief negotiator for the Hawai'i Nurses' Association. "We would really like to get this resolved."
Five registered nurses remain on the picket line, along with a sixth nurse who was fired just before the walkout and is awaiting mediation. One registered nurse remains on the job. The strike began May 12.
Kahue said the nurses have been offered a $350 bonus along with 1 percent pay raises in October, and next April and October if they agree to extend the contract through 2003. But, she said, the nurses don't want to do that because it would delay for almost two years discussions about staffing, scheduling and work conditions.
Hospital administrators have also been trying to get the nurses to drop a grievance complaining about members of management receiving raises even though they agreed no one would get pay increases, Kahue said. "We won't drop the grievance,'' she said.
Meanwhile, the hospital continues to give Moloka'i residents quality care despite the strike, according to Dr. Noa Emmett Aluli, co-medical executive director. Although the patient caseload seems to have picked up on the weekends, the emergency/urgent care department has been averaging about 10 patients a day, he said. In addition, he said, there are 12 long-term care residents who do not require skilled nurses to be well cared for.
"From the beginning we were hoping we didn't have to get this far,'' Aluli said.
The 30-bed hospital, operated by Honolulu-based Queen's Health Systems, is the only acute care clinic and emergency room on Moloka'i.
The nurses have not received a pay increase in more than three years. They are the lowest paid in the state, making $25.10 an hour, or about $3 less per hour than their counterparts at the Queen's Medical Center.
Administrators say the hospital loses more than $2 million a year while relying on state subsidies. nurses to drop a grievance complaining about members of management receiving raises even though they agreed no one would get pay increases, Kahue said. "We won't drop the grievance,'' she said.
Meanwhile, the hospital continues to give Moloka'i residents quality care despite the strike, according to Dr. Noa Emmett Aluli, co-medical executive director. Although the patient caseload seems to have picked up on the weekends, the emergency/urgent care department has been averaging about 10 patients a day, he said. In addition, he said, there are 12 long-term care residents who do not require skilled nurses to be well cared for.
"From the beginning we were hoping we didn't have to get this far,'' Aluli said.
The 30-bed hospital, operated by Honolulu-based Queen's Health Systems, is the only acute care clinic and emergency room on Moloka'i.
The nurses have not received a pay increase in more than three years. They are the lowest paid in the state, making $25.10 an hour, or about $3 less per hour than their counterparts at the Queen's Medical Center.
Administrators say the hospital loses more than $2 million a year while relying on state subsidies.
