Posted on: Wednesday, May 7, 2003
No talks set as Wahiawa nurse strike enters third day
By Robbie Dingeman and Mike Gordon
Advertiser Staff Writers
Some Central O'ahu and North Shore residents may find themselves postponing surgery or having babies at other hospitals as a nurses' strike enters its third day today at Wahiawa General Hospital.
Nurse managers continued to fill in for strikers at the 162-bed hospital, said Wahiawa General spokesman Richard Aea. He said three nurses crossed the picket line yesterday, but the hospital was mostly maintaining "business as usual."
Aea said doctors who had been planning to deliver babies at Wahiawa are being advised that they may want to go to another hospital. He said the hospital is delivering babies "if it's an emergency," but "we don't have a full staff here."
Both sides said no new talks are scheduled because the federal mediator is out of town until next week.
Aea said the hospital postponed elective surgery, but its emergency room and outpatient services such as X-ray, rehab and lab work ran smoothly. The long-term-care unit is not affected by the strike because no registered nurses work there.
Hospital administrators and the Hawai'i Nurses Association last met with a federal mediator last Wednesday, but the negotiations ended when the hospital rejected a proposal from the union.
About 30 nurses walked picket lines at the hospital's three entrances yesterday, said Randy Pisani, the hospital's recovery room nurse and one of the negotiators.
"We're still upbeat," she said. "We are still unified. We would love to be back at the bargaining table. We are available at any time of day or night to go back to the bargaining table."
In December, nearly 1,400 nurses at three major Honolulu hospitals went on strike for nearly six weeks.
For those nurses at Queen's, Kuakini and St. Francis medical centers, the dispute focused on working conditions that included staffing issues, mandatory overtime and sick leave/paid time off benefits.
At Wahiawa, the union said the key issue is a proposed cut in benefits that would undermine a proposed pay increase. The union said the proposed pay raise would be offset if the union accepts a management proposal to have nurses pay a bigger share of their medical costs.
But management said employees still would receive an overall increase in compensation.
Union members said the two sides are not far apart on wages, but there are sticking points in the benefits package, including health insurance, increased pay for more senior workers and access to retiree benefits.
