115 Days and Counting: New Jersey Nurses Strike For Better Pay

Nurses at one of the largest hospitals in New Jersey want better pay and strict patient-to-nurse ratios like those in California.

Nurses at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, one of the largest in the state of New Jersey, continue a 115-day strike that started on Aug. 4 to demand better pay.

The nurses at the 620-bed New Brunswick hospital want better pay and strict patient-to-nurse ratios, NJ.com reported. But hospital officials oppose enforceable patient-to-nurse ratios because they believe it limits the flexibility of staffing during higher volume periods, according to the outlet.

Health professionals allege chronic understaffing compromised patient care. They believe New Jersey should enforce staffing guidelines like California.

According to Becker’s Hospital Review, California law enforces a one-to-one ratio of nurses to patients in operating rooms, one-to-two in intensive care, labor and delivery, ICU patients in the ER, and neonatal care and one-to-four in emergency rooms, postpartum/antepartum and telemetry units among other guidelines.

Going without pay is a courageous undertaking in a tough economy and Judy Danella, a registered nurse at the facility and president of United Steel Workers Local 4-200 believes the hospital is using it to its advantage. Danella, the president of the union that represents the nurses said about the loss of payment according to NJ.com, “I believe that’s probably one of the aspects that the hospital is using to break the union.”

Wendy Gottsegen, a spokeswoman for the hospital said “the strike has cost the hospital over $120 million to ensure continuity of all patient care services, which we have achieved.” She added that the hospital is

“increasingly concerned for the well-being of [its] nurses and their families, and the impact the union’s prolonged strike is having on them as the union’s labor action extends.”

According to Gottsegen, “RWJUH staffing guidelines meet or exceed the union staffing proposal from months ago, even before the strike, and include nurse-to-patient standards that far exceed ratios proposed in legislation in Trenton or in staffing laws passed in states like California.” The spokeswoman added that they hope “to reach a fair and equitable resolution as soon as possible to end this strike and bring [its] nurses back.”

One nurse, identified as Jeffrey Martin said to the outlet that “The last three months have been pretty difficult.”

The nurses who have gone 87 days without benefits and 115 days without a paycheck continue to stand their ground against RWJBarnabas Health, known to be one of the most powerful entities in the state, the outlet noted.