In June, Nurses at Riverside Community Hospital took the ultimate step when we staged a 10-day strike to protest the dangerous “skeleton crew” approach to staffing our units. We made the difficult decision to strike following a breakdown in discussions over dangerously low staffing levels in the hospital.

In 2019, even before the COVID-19 pandemic struck, we successfully urged the hospital to increase staffing and end many of its unsafe practices, which resulted in an improved staffing agreement. Then, inexplicably, the hospital ended that agreement. The need to re-use PPE combined with low staffing left RNs unable to even take a sip of water for 8, 10, 12 or even more hours. Instead of taking extra precautions during the pandemic, management continued to cut corners and take risks with Nurses’ and patients’ lives.

The power we demonstrated ultimately helped win staffing guarantees and meal/break relief that are now in a binding contract.

Check out some footage of our 10-day strike strike here and see all the media coverage from the strike here.