HONOLULU (KHON2) — About 600 nurses represented by the Hawaii Nurses’ Association/OPEIU Local 50 have launched a one-day unfair labor practice (ULP) strike at Kapiolani Medical Center in Honolulu.
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Nurses are focusing on wages, staffing ratios and fear of retaliation but the hospital said it presented a generous contract offer.
The Chief Operations Officer of Kapiolani told KHON2 that they have been negotiating a new nurses contract for the last year and proposed a three-year deal on Thursday, Sept. 12.
Kapiolani Medical Center nurses to strike despite threat of lockout
“Which would put our nurses at $133,000 – $160,000 a year for a three-day workweek,” said Kapiolani Medical Center for Women & Children chief operations officer Gidget Ruscetta.
Nurses said it is not about the money.
“It’s all about safety,” said Meredith Evenson, a Kapiolani Resource Team registered nurse. “They frequently try to give us more and more patients and we tell them like, “‘We can’t provide good quality care running around as is.’”
“Sometimes being on the floor and taking up to eight patients at a time. New mothers, new babies.”
Meredith Evenson, Kapiolani Resource Team registered nurse
The Healthcare Association of Hawaii spoke to KHON2 about general hospital policies and said nurse-to-patient ratios are not set in stone and need to be adjusted by managers based on demand.
“Some patients are being admitted, patients are being discharged. There’s a constant movement of patients. They may be moved from an ICU to a med-surge unit,” said HAH executive director Hilton Raethel.
Another big concern is fear of retaliation — the hospital COO said she encourages folks to come forward with their concerns, but KHON2 heard concerns from nurses that it is not always so easy.
Travel nurse Justin Riney was training temporary replacement nurses, but said he was fired on Friday after he stopped by the picket line to greet friends on a break. He found out about his termination after he went back to his unit and spoke to his supervisor.
“She let me know that they had security footage of me coming outside twice with my, my duck scrub cap on, the duck symbolizes the nurses here! And they said that they were terminating me because of it, ending my contract effective immediately,” Riney said, “like I’m some criminal!”
Riney said he informed the nurse who he was training that he would be taking a five-minute break, but the hospital said through a statement:
“A contracted nurse, who was not part of the temporary workforce, twice abandoned their post during work hours. This person did not tell the charge nurse that they were leaving before walking off duty. Kapi‘olani informed the agency, which is the employer of the individual, that the worker twice left their post without notice. The agency has suspended the clinician pending further investigation.”
Gidget Ruscetta, Kapiolani Medical Center for Women & Children
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The strike started on Friday, but the hospital-imposed lockout — where HNA nurses will not be allowed to clock in to work — starts on Saturday, Aug. 14.
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