More than 1,700 nurses at Stanford University Hospital and its associated Packard Children's Hospital struck June 7. The key issues include safe staffing levels, better wages, and improved health benefits.

"There are now 100 unfilled openings," explained striker Paul Cole on the picket line. Due to this short staffing, "nurses are tired because of lots of overtime, and are in less able to function safely."

The hospital administration claims that overtime is voluntary, Cole explained, "we say it's mandatory." What the administration does is approach a nurse at the end of the shift and announce that there is no one coming in to take over. The individual nurse is then faced with the choice of working overtime or abandoning the patients. In this manner the administration exploits the nurses' greater sense of responsibility for the patients to compel them to work.

"But we have a life too," added striker Cindy Lyon. "They go home at five o'clock to kids and family. We want to too." The union seeks more power to determine safe staffing levels. One picket-line sign read, "Exhausted Nurse Needs Intensive Care."

"The last two years have been difficult because patient care hours and patient services have been cut. As a result, there have been increasing problems with implementation of care," read the union's fact sheet.

Wages are also an important issue. "The hospital is offering 4 percent and 4 percent" wage increases over the next two years, Cole said, "we're asking 11.5 percent and 9.5 percent." The Stanford hospitals are in Santa Clara county, in the heart of Silicon Valley. The stock market bubble, led by computer stocks, has driven housing costs in this area far beyond the reach of working people.

"I came from Virginia in March, where I was able to support myself and two children on my salary there. Here I can't support just myself--I have to live with someone," Lyon said. The wage and staffing issues are closely related since one reason for the shortage of nurses is that they cannot afford to live in the area at these wages.

"In 34 years as a nurse I've never before been on strike or on a picket line," said Nevarez, but "they've nickel-and-dimed us to death." "We want a cap on health care [costs]," she continued. Under the current plan, the nurses have a choice among several HMO plans they consider inadequate. "We can't afford Blue Cross/Blue Shield, and many community physicians won't accept all the companies on our plan." Management is also trying to split the union by introducing a two-tier system, with worse benefits for new hires, Cole explained.

The administration contracted with Denver-based U.S. Nursing Corp. to provide 500 scab nurses from as far away as Vermont, Alabama, and Pennsylvania. Some of these have already been "let go" for providing false credentials.

Cole said that the hospital management is an "arrogant, top-down team that doesn't ask for input, and ignores it when it gets it. This is not just input from nurses, but from doctors too."

He pointed to the recent fiasco with the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) hospitals. Management merged, then after two years "demerged" the two systems. As much as $150 million may have been squandered on this bureaucratic maneuver. Some saw this as a way to break the staff unions at UCSF; others as a way for both hospitals to reduce competition. Few believe that the quality of patient care was a consideration at all.

Perhaps for this reason, the nurses are winning support from at least some of the doctors. Jessica McAlpine, an OBGYN resident, stopped by the picket line to voice her encouragement. "The quality of nursing is phenomenal," she said, "and there has been an excellent relationship between physicians and staff. I want to support them in creating a working environment in which they can continue to provide excellent patient care."

This is the first strike since 1974 for CRONA--The Committee for Recognition of Nursing Achievement--although a walkout was narrowly averted in 1998.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home