Union votes to authorize a strike at Women & Infants Hospital

BUTTONS WORN by Women & Infants Hospital employees, members of District 1199 SEIU NE, reflect their opinion about a potential strike, after union members voted to approve a strike. / COURTESY 1199 SEIU NE
BUTTONS WORN by Women & Infants Hospital employees, members of District 1199 SEIU NE, reflect their opinion about a potential strike, after union members voted to approve a strike. / COURTESY 1199 SEIU NE

EAST PROVIDENCE – Employees of Women & Infants Hospital authorized District 1199 SEIU New England to allow its bargaining committee to deliver a strike notice to Care New England’s management while contract negotiations are ongoing, the union announced Dec. 12.

Voting was held Sunday and Monday for hospital employees who overwhelmingly voted to authorize a potential strike, 1,385 to 38, 1199 SEIU NE reported. The contract between the parties expired Nov. 30.

The notice will be delivered to the hospital either Tuesday or Wednesday, said Patrick J. Quinn, executive vice president for 1199 SEIU NE, CNE’s largest union. The union must give the hospital 10 days’ advance notice before a strike occurs.

“We’ll continue to meet with [CNE],” he said in a brief phone interview.

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In the press statement, Quinn said, “Our membership has been frustrated by corporate management’s unwillingness to listen and address the concerns of the people that do work at the hospital over the last several years and during current contract negotiations. It is the workers who have made Women & Infants a nationally recognized hospital for generations of Rhode Island patients and newborns – not overpaid executives. Workers at the hospital are united until we win a contract that ensures good jobs, safe staffing and quality care.”

Women & Infants Hospital issued a statement indicating that it “is prepared to respond to any threat of a strike with a comprehensive contingency plan that will enable us to maintain our full complement of services and continue to provide high quality, uninterrupted care to the women of this community. Should a work stoppage occur, the hospital will issue detailed instructions to the patient and provider community on how to continue to access services and programs at Women & Infants.”

“My co-workers in the [Neonatal Intensive Care Unit] are united with workers throughout the hospital for safe staffing in our contract negotiations… we feel management is currently ignoring our experience and concerns over staffing levels,” Jamie Manfredi, a registered nurse since 2008 in the NICU. “We are sending a message to [CNE] executives that they need to put our patients over profits and listen more to their frontline staff.”

Negotiations have been underway for some time and in July, 1199 SEIU NE reportedly requested information pertaining to staffing, overtime and extra time, per diems and the use of out-of-state nurses, and asserted that CNE is violating federal laws by not providing such data. Citing the 2014 IRS filing on Guidestar.org, the union reported that CNE Chief Executive Officer Dennis Keefe earned $1.3 million in compensation, which represented a 23 percent increase from the prior year.

After voting, union members put on purple and yellow buttons that read, “I DO NOT WANT TO STRIKE, BUT I WILL.”

The statement from Women & Infants Hospital continued, “We certainly hope that there will not be a strike, and we are working hard to reach an agreement. We believe that the best approach to reach a fair, competitive contract is to continue to bargain in good faith, as we have been doing since September 2016.”

More than 1,700 employees at Women & Infants Hospital and more than 500 members at Butler Hospital are represented by 1199 SEIU NE.

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