Long Beach Memorial nurses announce 1-day strike; hospital responds with 4-day lockout
The hospital assured residents that patient care will not be impacted.
After months of contract negotiations with little forward progress, unionized nurses at Long Beach Memorial and Miller Children’s and Women’s hospitals announced a one-day strike. Hospital leadership fired back with a four-day lockout.
Last month, nurses employed at the two MemorialCare hospitals voted to authorize a strike. On May 8, their union, the California Nurses Association, which has more than 2,100 members at the Long Beach campus, gave notice of the Thursday, May 22 strike as they fight for better staffing, work safety and more.
“We are striking to stand up for our patients and ourselves,” Stephanie Jobe, a registered nurse at Miller Children’s, said in an email Thursday.
“It is our sincere hope that the employer will not use intimidation tactics to get nurses to cross the picket line,” Jobe added.
Interim CEO Frank Bierne said the strike will cost the hospitals millions of dollars and “dramatically reduce the wages and other benefits that the hospital would be in a position to offer to the nurses in any subsequent contract proposal,” according to an internal memo sent to the nursing staff and obtained by the Watchdog.
Bierne went on to say that any nurse who honors the one-day strike will not be scheduled until Tuesday, May 27.
“Sadly, the employer has chosen to lock us out for an additional four days, at a tremendous cost to the medical center and the community,” Jobe said. “This is quite a disconnect since the CEO has told nearly 80 union nurses that they will be out of a job soon.”
The news comes less than weeks after the hospitals laid off 175 workers and announced the closure of its blood donor center amid an alleged $40 million budgetary shortfall.
In a public statement sent out May 9, Stephanie Garcia, vice president of operations, said hospital management is “extremely disappointed that union leadership has prematurely chosen this course of action.”
Negotiations between the union and the hospital began Feb. 5, with the old contract expiring at the end of March. According to the union, negotiations haven’t really touched on financials as increased staffing levels and security have been critical sticking points that the hospital has not given any ground on.
The strike notice came after 15 bargaining sessions, according to Memorial officials, who noted the last two contract negotiations had 21 and 42 sessions before an agreement was reached without a strike. A 16th bargaining session was scheduled for Friday, May 9, but hospital leadership canceled it at the last minute.
“As a show of good faith, the union bargaining team showed up anyway and waited for MemorialCare to do the right thing,” Jobe said. “We spent a long time sitting across from an empty table, but it helped us understand their priorities.”
Memorial claims it offered to schedule additional sessions in May and June on the condition of the union withdrawing its strike notice and agreeing not to issue another. Because the notice was not withdrawn, union representatives say Memorial paused negotiations until July.
The hospitals reached out to patients to reschedule elective procedures between May 22 and May 26, and are working with agencies to bring in traveling nurses to provide care during the strike and lockout, according to a statement.
“Long Beach residents can be assured that the union’s decision to strike will in no way compromise our hospitals’ ability or commitment to serve the essential health care needs of the community,” Garcia said. “We will continue to provide emergency and critical care services.”
Jobe noted that traveling nurses are expensive, saying the money would be better spent investing in the hospital’s own staff. Staff nurses in the U.S. make $38.63 an hour on average, according to ZipRecruiter, and registered nurses make an average of $45.42 per hour, according to nursa.com. Traveling nurses, meanwhile, make an average of $49 per hour, according to nurse.org.
“MemorialCare needs to do more to recruit and retain staff nurses,” Jobe said. “Replacement RNs aren’t covered by the same protections as union nurses. Union nurses have comprehensive orientation and training to ensure RN competency and patient safety.”
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