Nurses beginning 2nd week of strike
By Mike Gordon and Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writers
Striking nurses at St. Francis Medical Center today marked their first week walking the picket line while hospital officials finalized arrangements to bring in 12 replacements to spell exhausted staffers.
One replacement nurse is already working with patients needing kidney dialysis treatment and the rest are expected by the end of the week, said hospital spokeswoman Maggie Jarrett.
Nurses at Kuakini Medical Center today also marked a week on the line.
Over the weekend, St. Francis transferred one of its critically ill patients to The Queen’s Medical Center, where about 800 nurses have been on strike since Tuesday. The patient was one of two people that hospitals officials had used in pleas last week to bring some nurses back under special circumstances.
No negotiations are scheduled between nurses and management at any of the hospitals, said Sue Scheider, executive director of the Hawaii Nurses Association. In all, nearly 1,400 nurses are on strike.
Scheider said the nurses have made it clear that they will return to negotiations “any day or any night.”
“The nurses will last as long as they have to,” she said today. “It is really awe-inspiring to see how dedicated they are.”
At St. Francis, nurse managers have been pressed into service, but Jarrett said the hospital is concerned about fatigue. “Our staff is really getting stretched,” Jarrett said. “The 16-hour shifts are twice the normal shift.”
St. Francis nurse Blaine Southward said the strikers gained new strength over the weekend after feeling “powerless” on Thursday and Friday. Now they have found inspiration in each other, he said.
“I think we are dug in,” he said today.
The nurses had been walking the line for entire eight hour shifts but that was cut in half yesterday, Southward said.
“People are still committed to the strike but the reality is they have to put food on the table so they are looking for part-time work,” he said.
Meanwhile, nurses voted late Saturday night to accept a contract offer from Kaiser Medical Center, averting the possibility of a strike there.
The contract offers a 21 percent pay increase over three years, with additional benefits for more experienced nurses that kick in during the second and third years of the contract. It includes policies that give nurses more voice in staffing, and provides enhanced medical coverage when they retire. It also addresses pay inequities between nurses who work at the hospital and those who work in the clinics.
The contract was ratified by a strong margin, according to the Hawai‘i Nurses Association.
Sue Scheider, the association’s director of collective bargaining, said the contract represents real progress in several areas, including patient care and the need to recognize and retain experienced nurses.
