Nurses Barred from Hospital After Austin’s Nurses Strike

• Historic strike took place as 2000 nurses protested the working conditions in Ascension hospitals.
• Hospital security turned away nurses from returning to work if they participated in the strike.
• Nurses face retaliation from hospital staff but commit to their fight for safe, sustainable working conditions.

2000 nurses walked out in protest of working conditions at Ascension Seton Medical Center. This historic, one-day protest on June 27^th took place in Austin, TX and Wichita, KS as nurses found hospital management unable to work with the nurse’s union.

This strike was done with prior knowledge and authorization from the hospital in order to allow management to contract temporary nurses. The nurse’s forethought to eliminate any lapse in care for their patients was not returned by the hospital which barred nurses from returning for three days after the initial nursing strike, citing their contract with the temporary nurses.

Nurses at Ascension Seton have committed themselves to the fight for healthy, sustainable working conditions and to providing the best patient care possible.

Why Are Ascension Seton’s Nurses Striking?

The story of this nursing strike began all the way in September of 2022 when the nurses at Ascension Seton voted to unionize. In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, nurses knew they needed systematic change to their working conditions.

Conditions at Ascension Seton were particularly dire. Lindsay Spinney, a neonatal ICU RN at the hospital and member of the union’s bargaining team describes nurses having to reuse supplies inappropriately due to improper stocking. The hospital also has high nurse-to-patient ratios with nurses working with up to eight patients at a time each shift. Kristine Kittelson, an RN in the mother-baby unit, claims these ratios are causing preventable errors.

These high nurse-to-patient ratios happen due to a lack of nursing staff but the nurses at Ascension Seton point out that this lack of staff is not due to a lack of qualified nurses but is rather a product of the working conditions (the percentage of inpatient RNs who were likely to leave direct patient care rose from 35% in 2022 to over 40% this year).

Burnout is rampant in nursing, and unions like this one are hoping to combat the core issues driving nurses from the field such as staffing ratios and salary.

Spinney claims that management at Ascension Seton has been “dragging their feet” in negotiations. Excessive stalling or the “Wait and See Argument” is a common tactic used to disrupt a union. With patients’ lives on the line, nurses could not wait around for conditions to improve and voted to strike.

In response to their strike notice, Ascension released a statement voicing their “disappoint[ment] that NNU [National Nurses United] has made the decision to proceed with a one-day strike, especially given the economic and logistical hardship this will present for our associates and their families.” Ascension also announced their contract with temporary nurses.

Ascension Seton is a hospital network under the Ascension healthcare system whose “economic hardships” can be tracked over the previous years. Ascension’s recent earnings are as follows: +1.2 billion in 2019, -1 billion in 2020, +5.7 billion in 2021, and -1.8 billion in 2022.

This economical dissonance was reported on by the New York Times, exploring how Ascension uses its nonprofit status to avoid $1 billion a year in taxes while paying its chief executive $13 million and maintaining $18 billion in cash reserves.

The average nurse in Austin, TX makes less than $85,000 a year.

Austin’s Historic Nursing Strike

On the morning of June 27^th, hundreds of nurses arrived in their scrubs and shirts reading “patients before profits.” Despite the nearly 100-degree heat, protestors marched up and down the block. Texas labor organizers told the Texas Observer they couldn’t recall a picket line so large and energetic.

Nurses took this opportunity to spread awareness of just how difficult things have become inside the hospital as more and more veteran nurses are being replaced with new and temporary nurses. One nurse spoke about how she was trained in an intensive care unit by a nurse who had only been working for six months themselves.

The strike caught the attention of media and politicians alike with U.S. congressman Greg Casar, who has spoken for worker’s rights throughout his career, attending and speaking about a nurse’s service to the community at large. He said, “Y’all are out here on strike making sure that our kids are born safely, that we’re taken care of when we are sick, that our neighbors—in their most desperate moments—get the care that they need.”

Despite the hospital’s claim that nurses would be unable to return to work if they participated in the nursing strike, citing their contract with the temporary nurses, the nurses arrived ready to work the next day.

The Problem Returning to Work

Ascension was true to their word and stationed security at the entrance of the hospital, turning away any nurse that participated in the one-day strike. The hospital’s patients suffered for this decision. The temporary nurses, who were new to the hospital and without 70% of the regular staff, were in chaos with women having to give labor without any anesthesia because it was not able to get to them in time. Gripentrog says these reports are extremely concerning.

Nurses saw the hospital’s response to the strike as an attempt to intimidate and bust their union’s efforts. Shelly Rader, an RN in Ascension’s emergency department said, “We would love to get back to work today for our patients, if only management was as serious about patient care as we are.

Four days after the strike, dozens of nurses marched to the hospital doors together, unsure if security would again block their entrance. As they marched, the nurses sang “Solidarity Forever” an anthem for trade union workers.

The Bottom Line

It has been two weeks since the initial strike, and nurses are not finding any changes from Ascension Seton. Despite the lack of changes at the bargaining table, nurses are allegedly facing retaliation from the hospital as shift swaps are being denied and previously approved swaps are being undone.

There are talks of a second nursing strike in the future, but the nurses at Ascension maintain their commitment to patient safety during the union’s negotiations with hospital management.

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