Many of ONA’s primary demands do, however, affect the bottom line of hospital operations—the baseline need for adequate staffing. Understaffing is partially a function of a shortage of trained professionals—ironically, teaching nursing pays so much less than being a nurse, that there is a back-end educational crisis in which the system is failing to produce the workforce required to meet demand.

One would think this would make nurses more valuable in the labor market. However, healthcare in the US is not a ‘free market’ system—dominated by profiteering, healthcare in this country is controlled not by demand, and not by providers, by a vast intermediary “healthcare management” system comprised of insurance companies and other entities whose primary ‘value addition’ to the system lies in their ability to extract vast profit not least by denying services to theoretically ‘covered’ individuals, that is, people who have paid for medical insurance who are then denied coverage for life-saving claims.

Furthermore, Oregon is a vast and, in many places, sparsely-populated state. The bulk of Oregon’s population lives in the Portland metropolitan area, arguably stretching south along the I-5 corridor south, through the state capitol Salem to Eugene, the seat of the state’s university system. Then there’s the ‘rest’ of Oregon, southern and eastern, vast stretches where a ‘big city’ might have 50-100,000 residents and many towns and villages have residential numbers in the hundreds. Services can be hard to physically access, requiring drives of hundreds of miles, and there is little profit incentive for capitalist healthcare to provide more proximate infrastructure to the rural parts of the state.

Delivering more services with fewer staff is a Profitability 101 strategy, but unlike say package or entertainment delivery, healthcare still requires a high degree of one-on-one human interaction at all stages of its services. A profit-wringer’s alternative, then, is to vastly understaff the services being delivered, and call it good enough. Leaving aside ONA’s demands around pay equity and adequate cost-of-living adjustments, this is the real crisis underneath it. The situation is so bad that the Oregon labor movement did an end run around the bargaining process, and got the state legislature to pass hospital staff/patient ratio laws requiring that patients be provided adequate care through adequate hospital staffing. Providence, among others, has been deeply resistant to complying with these laws.

Additionally, the recent corporatization of Providence in particular has brought with it a new management that wants to more or less wipe the board (represented by collective bargaining gains over time) and ‘start fresh,’ something like when management fires everyone and makes them re-apply for their old jobs under new terms and conditions. Providence and the ONA have been bargaining for a next contract for years. Management has not bargained in good faith, meeting infrequently with ONA’s bargaining team, and offering little-to-no movement in proposals when they do. By all appearances, management seems to be in ‘last offer’ mode without actually saying so, because of course if they said so, labor law would move the process along, imposing an arbitration process that might be fairer than what management has in mind, even if arbitration threatens significant losses for the nurses, thus labor’s overall reluctance to turn the fate of a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) over to the tender mercies of arbitration.

Last summer, Providence nurses led a three-day walkout of Providence hospitals across the state, which turned into a lockout when management refused to let nurses return to work, the week before they’d contracted with scab agencies. The current strike is open-ended, indefinite, and has seen nurses picketing for going on a month now, sometimes in severe winter weather, with no end in immediate sight.

Donations to the ONA Strike Fund can be made at:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-the-providence-strike-fund
Even very small donations are meaningful expressions of solidarity, and add up.

The post Oregon Nurses Association (ONA) Strike at Providence Hospitals – A Brief Analysis appeared first on Labor Today.

Nurses are the backbone of our healthcare system, working tirelessly day and night to provide the best care for patients. They are often the first and last faces patients see during their hospital stays, and their contributions are invaluable. However, the demands placed on nurses have become increasingly overwhelming, with staffing shortages, excessive work hours, and inadequate compensation becoming all too common. As one nurse on the picket line stated.

The nurses at RWJ Hospital are striking not just for themselves, but for all healthcare workers and patients across the nation. Their demands for safe staffing levels and fair wages are a cry for the recognition of the essential role they play in our society. Adequate staffing ensures that nurses can provide the highest quality of care, preventing burnout and ensuring patient safety.

The working conditions that the nurses are fighting for are not some pie in the sky demands either, a nurse-to-patient ratio in a critical care unit of 1:2 or fewer at all times, and a nurse-to-patient ratio in an emergency department of 1:4 or fewer at all times that patients are receiving treatment is the standard in states such as New York and California. New Jersey, however, has no such standard and in RWJ these ratios can be as high as 1:14. As one nurse on the picket line stated, “we [are] the premier hospital in New Jersey that is setting the example which will go to legislation which every hospital in New Jersey will have to abide … that’s why the hospital doesn’t want to do it, we are faced off against corporate.”

Supporting the striking nurses at RWJ Hospital is not only about showing appreciation for their hard work; it is also about demanding accountability from healthcare institutions. Hospitals should prioritize the well-being of their staff and patients, not cuts to staffing to enrich shareholders. This strike is a wake-up call for them to do just that.

It is our duty as class-oriented trade unionists to rally behind these nurses in their fight for better conditions and fair wages. After all, the cuts in staffing effect the working-class more than anyone, as the bosses can afford to shell out extra money to get the best care these nurses are trying to ensure for everyone. We can do this by joining their picket lines, sharing their story on social media, and contacting hospital management to demand that they address the nurses’ concerns. By standing together, we can make a real difference and ensure that our healthcare system treats nurses with the respect and fairness they deserve.

In conclusion, the striking nurses at RWJ Hospital are not just fighting for their own rights; they are fighting for a better healthcare system for all of us. Their dedication to their profession and their patients should be celebrated and supported. Let us stand in solidarity with these nurses, demanding the reforms that will benefit not only them but also the future of healthcare in our communities.

The post Solidarity in Scrubs: Supporting the Striking Nurses at RWJ Hospital in New Jersey appeared first on Labor Today.