800 nurses at Queen's stage walkout today

By Robbie Dingeman and Mike Gordon
Advertiser Staff Writers

More than 800 nurses at The Queen's Medical Center went on strike at 7 a.m. today, joining nearly 600 nurses at two other Honolulu hospitals who walked off the job yesterday after negotiations failed.

Queen's nurses voted yesterday to go on strike. Vote tallies were not released, but those who turned out showed strong support for a strike, said Sue Scheider, director of collective bargaining for the Hawai'i Nurses Association, which represents the registered nurses at the state's largest private hospital and primary trauma center.

Queen's officials said the center is prepared to maintain all services with temporary nurses, and urges patients to go to their scheduled appointments as planned, but allow for extra time for traffic delays likely to occur because of the picket lines.

Both sides said they are open to further negotiations.

Meanwhile, picket lines went up at Kuakini and St. Francis medical centers in Liliha at 7 a.m. yesterday.

About 150 people walked the picket line at Kuakini yesterday where 225 nurses belong to the union. They carried signs that read "Rn=Quality care" and "Every patient deserves a nurse."

"We wanted to avoid striking, but it seems this is the only way to get our message across," said Kerry Lineham, a spokesman for striking nurses at Kuakini.

At St. Francis, nearly 100 people walked the line representing the 370 union nurses there. Officials at St. Francis said 30 union nurses reported to work.

"By an overwhelming margin, Queen's nurses expressed their mandate to reject the offer," Scheider said. She said the decision was based on staffing decisions, the hospital's move to combine sick leave and vacation time into a single category of Paid Time Off (PTO), as well as changed retirement benefits. Scheider said nurses were not hung up on wage increases being offered them but by "the overall compensation package which nurses doubted would keep enough RNs providing safe care."

Dr. Peter Halford, Queen's chief of staff, said for now the hospital plans business as usual but is not scheduling new elective surgery. "We haven't turned away anybody," he said.

Bill Richter, who works in the Queen's emergency room, also serves on the negotiating team and questioned how the hospital can provide appropriate patient care with 800-some members out on strike.

Queen's has brought in more than 250 "flying nurses" who will work during the strike. But Richter wondered how the temporary hires could handle the workload. "You figure out the math: you've got 200 nurses to replace 800," he said.

Halford said the numbers aren't that simple because the 846 union nurses include part-timers and people who work every shift. In addition, the traveler nurses will work 12-hour shifts. He said they will be assisted by other managers and employees not in the union.

Halford said they have temporary nurses who are qualified, trained and oriented. "Kuakini had them today and they hit the ground running and they were very pleased with their performance," he said.

Scott Foster, a spokesman for the nurses association, said union members have heard estimates that Queen's is paying $1 million a week to fly in nurses from other states including the cost of transportation, housing and salary. Queen's officials would not say how much it will cost.

Queen's chief executive officer Arthur Ushijima said the hospital moved to bring in the traveling nurses when the 10-day strike notice was made and he acknowledged that the move brings increased costs. "Ultimately, there is certainly a cost that will be borne by the community," he said.

But he said the nature of healthcare left them no choice. "We do not want any patient's lives to be jeopardized, and hence we had to incur these costs," Ushijima said. "We have to ask what is a patient's life worth and obviously it is a cost that we have to bear to ensure that patient safety is assured."

Richter said the nurses won't be blocking ambulances from reaching the medical center. "Emergency vehicles will immediately be let through," he said. "We're nurses. We're here to help people as best we can."

Gail Tiwanak, Queen's vice president of Marketing and Communications, yesterday said patients "should feel confident that they can come here and and get the services and treatment that they've always had."

At St. Francis, the work stoppage prompted the hospital to send out temporary layoff notices to about 100 union workers and non-bargaining unit employees in support positions that include maintenance, housekeeping, food service and clerical work.

St. Francis canceled all surgeries, is not admitting new patients and has diverted ambulances from its emergency room.

Meanwhile, a lawsuit was filed against the union representing the nurses — the Hawai'i Nurses Association — on behalf of 10 patients of St. Francis Medical Center asking that 45 "essential workers" be allowed to work in specialized units during the strike.

Those nurses work in the hospital's dialysis units for kidney patients, hospice care for the terminally ill and in the transplant institute where organs are transplanted.

Attorneys Burnham Greeley and David Kwock filed the lawsuit asking the court for a temporary restraining order and a court injunction to allow the nurses to continue to provide those services.

On the picket lines, motorists honked their support of nurses outside both hospitals.

"It's a good feeling hearing that support," said St. Francis nurse and picket captain Chad Shibuya. "It's our first day, so everyone is upbeat. We really believe in this so it makes it a lot easier. We feel this needs to be done to retain nurses in Hawai'i."

No problems were reported at either picket site. Negotiations at St. Francis broke off at 2 a.m. yesterday and no further negotiations were scheduled, said St. Francis spokeswoman Maggie Jarrett.

The failed negotiations were the latest in a series of high-pressure talks between the Hawai'i Nurses Association and the five major hospitals on O'ahu.

Tentative agreements have been reached with Kaiser and Kapi'olani medical centers. Nurses at each hospital will vote later in the week on whether to accept proposed contracts.

Services continued yesterday at Kuakini and St. Francis. Cancer patients were still receiving chemotherapy and kidney dialysis patients received treatment that was being shortened by 30 minutes.

At Kuakini, negotiations broke off at 1 a.m. yesterday, said hospital spokeswoman Donda Spiker. "We did give a generous settlement offer and that was rejected," she said. "We came back with a best and final offer. That was all about between about 11:30 p.m. and 1 a.m."

Talks ended with no further meetings scheduled, Spiker said.

Lineham declined to discuss details of the negotiations, but said the nurses are focused on nurse retention and staffing issues, including improved medical and retirement benefits.

Kuakini nurses also want to do away with "mandatory overtime," in which hospitals have the right to add four additional hours to a nurse's 12-hour regular work shift, Lineham said.

"It becomes a safety issue because you don't want a tired nurse looking after you," he said.

The number of patients at St. Francis was reduced in the past week from 195 patients to 117 this morning, Jarrett said. The hospital stopped admitting patients last week.

Nurse managers, licensed practical nurses, nurse assistants and others are handling care, Jarrett said.

"We feel we can maintain safe patient care at this level," she said. "We are assessing every day. Some nurses may cross the line. We don't know right now."

At Kuakini, the hospital is using managers and nurses who are not part of the bargaining union, but also brought in contract nurses, Spiker said.

"We are phasing them in because we need to assess our patient census and see how many we have," Spiker said.

In the past week, Kuakini reduced its number of patients from 108 patients to 85 yesterday morning, Spiker said.

Advertiser reporter Scott Ishikawa contributed to this report.