I attended negotiations at Backus Hospital on Thursday night. I watched as AFT Connecticut President Jan Hochadel spoke. She expressed her gratitude to all nurses and remembered what they had meant to her as they walked the journey of breast cancer treatment and recovery with her.
She spoke to the hospital, demanding they respect the nurses and bargain in good faith, and that they come to a tentative agreement that night or face a 2 day strike that had the full backing of AFT and the greater Labor movement.
Then I watched as managements lawyer, Rick, spend a half hour blaming and disrespecting the nurses.
I have never seen such disrespect.
It really didn’t mater what offer came after that.
Rick “blew up” negotiations.
I was furious, but now after a couple of days, I can see that as bad as this “presentation” was, it is what the nurses experience day in and day out from Backus Hospital.
They are told through the news that there is plenty of PPE and that staff have it 100% of the time, yet it is rationed to them and they must reuse it.
They contract Covid and then Hartford Hospital fights against them getting coverage under Worker’s Compensation, and when a outbreak occurs, they are blamed for “a breach in protocol.”
They find out through coworkers, not the hospital, that a patient they took care of tested positive for Covid.
When they stand up for their patient’s safety, they are intimidated.
Nurses leave when another job is available, leaving those who stay to work short staffed and mandated double shifts.
The nurses seek a fair contract.
They seek pay equity with other area hospitals so that retention will be less of an problem. They seek insurance that is not continually eroding benefits, not a plan that management can change on a whim, without renegotiation (as the hospital has proposed). They seek a commitment to adequate PPE. They seek safe staffing, asking only that the hospital notify union leadership when they cannot maintain the staffing matrix (which the hospital decides and reports to the state DPH), so that together it can be discussed and solutions can be found.
They seek the respect that all Healthcare Professional seek and deserve.
The situation at Backus may be the extreme, but it is not isolated to Backus, to Hartford Healthcare, or to Connecticut hospitals. It is happening across the country and across the industry, in hospitals, skilled nursing homes, home care, and elsewhere.
The strike is not inevitable, but if it is to happen, Healthcare Professionals across the country will stand with the Backus Nurses. The Labor Movement and the Community will stand with them.
Don’t call us heroes and treat us like zeros.
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