Walkout by nurses enters 11th week

By Robbie Dingeman
Advertiser Health Writer

Wahiawa General Hospital management and the union representing striking nurses spent a long night at the bargaining table but were unable to prevent the strike from entering an 11th week.

Negotiations ended at about 7 a.m. yesterday, after the two sides met for 14 hours without an agreement. Hawai'i Nurses' Association spokesman Scott Foster said negotiators for the hospital administration asked that the talks be reconvened at 9 a.m. Tuesday at the Hawai'i Employers Council.

The parties had resumed talks Friday afternoon. While no agreement was reached, proposals were exchanged and discussed, Foster said. A spokesman for the administration could not be reached to comment.

Both sides have said they are glad to be meeting again, working to end the labor dispute of some 62 registered nurses at the rural community hospital.

Nurse negotiator Ella Siroskey said the nurses were disappointed that they adjourned without an agreement; they had been prepared to talk through the weekend.

"We were pretty optimistic at first," Siroskey said. "The further we got through the night, the worse the proposals from management became."

However, Siroskey said it was the first time that the hospital board of directors sent a representative to the negotiations, which the union saw as a positive step.

The hospital has cut down the number of baby deliveries and elective surgery, while continuing most of its outpatient services, said spokesman Richard Aea. He has said the hospital hired eight traveling nurses to help cover the duties of the strikers.

The union for the nurses has said most of the striking registered nurses have found other jobs and been offered permanent nursing positions elsewhere. The negotiators are said to be not far apart on the issue of wages, but are in conflict on the benefits package.

Aea said the hospital has offered raises over the three-year contract proposal, ranging from 15 percent to 19 percent, depending on the other benefits.

Wahiawa nurses earn $28.60 an hour. Both sides have said that about half of the nurses are full-time and the other half are part-time employees who work at least 20 hours each week.