Wichita nurses at St. Francis vote to authorize a strike amid contract negotiations
About 93% of nurses at Ascension Via Christi St. Francis, one of the largest hospitals in the state, have voted to authorize a strike, according to a Thursday morning news release sent out by the union representing nurses at the hospital.
It’s unclear how many of the 650-plus nurses at the hospital voted. The union did not immediately respond to an email for clarification.
The Wednesday vote comes as staff and hospital administrators hash out their first contract. In November, nurses voted 378 to 194 in favor of joining the National Nurses Organizing Commission, an affiliate of the country’s largest registered nurses union, National Nurses United.
The vote allows the union to authorize a strike, which would start 10 days after the hospital has been notified. The hospital has not been notified.
“It’s very hard to get nurses to leave their patients, but what Ascension management is doing to our facilities is simply unacceptable,” Angela Cammarn, a registered nurse in the cardiac intensive care unit, said in the news release. “We were hopeful that bargaining a strong contract would remedy our concerns, but it’s clear management needs to see how serious we are about improving patient care.”
The news release says the healthcare system has been putting “profits before patients.” The top issues they are pushing for in the contract include “workplace violence prevention, safe staffing, and nursing staff recruitment and retention.”
Ascension, in an emailed statement, said the vote was “disappointing given that our bargaining team” and the union have been in talks and have multiple meetings scheduled through the end of August.
“Should we receive an official strike notification, we have a comprehensive contingency plan in place to ensure our patients experience no disruption in care or service,” the statement says.
Just a few months after nurses at St. Francis voted to unionize, nurses at Ascension Via Christi St. Joseph Hospital did the same, making them the only two Ascension hospitals in Kansas to unionize.
The unionization comes amid a national shortage of registered nurses. Many left the industry in the wake of the pandemic, which sent hospitals scrambling to add more beds and left people waiting hours and even days for care.
Ascension is a Catholic, not-for-profit healthcare system. It’s one of the largest healthcare systems in the country, with roughly 139,000 employees and hospitals in about 19 states.
In December, a New York Times investigation into Ascension found the staffing shortages at its hospitals were caused by years of staffing cuts in order to increase profits.
This story was originally published June 1, 2023 at 12:05 PM.