St. Joseph nurses vote to authorize a strike amid contract negotiations
Nurses at Ascension Via Christi St. Joseph have voted to give their recently joined union permission to call a strike, according to a Wednesday morning news release sent out by the union.
The strike wouldn’t happen until 10 days after the union notified Ascension, which has not happened.
The move comes weeks after St. Francis nurses voted to authorize a strike and while nurses at both hospitals are negotiating with administrators on a contract. Nurses contend Ascension is “putting profits before patients,” according to news releases.
At St. Joseph, 90% of nurses voted in favor of authorizing a strike. It’s unclear how many of the 300-plus nurses voted or if all were allowed to vote.
The National Nurses Organizing Commission, an affiliate of the country’s largest registered nurses union, National Nurses United, did not immediately respond to questions about the vote, nor did they respond when St. Francis voted.
“We have a staffing crisis at our hospital because management refuses to get serious about nurse recruitment and retention,” said Marvin Ruckle, an RN in the neonatal intensive care unit, said in the news release. “We know a strong union contract is the best way to address this, and we’re prepared to show management that we’ll fight for our patients at the table and on the strike line.”
In a statement, Ascension said they are bargaining in good faith with the union. The statement said that the authorization is disappointing since officials and the union have only had one meeting and had more planned through the end of August.
Ascension hasn’t received the 10-day strike notice for St. Francis or St. Joseph, but, if they do, they “have a comprehensive contingency plan in place to ensure our patients experience no disruption in care or service.”
In March, registered nurses at St. Joseph voted 179 to 108 (about 62 percent) in favor of joining the National Nurses Organizing Commission. The vote came a few months after registered nurses at St. Francis voted 378 to 194 (about 66 percent) to join the union. They are the only two Ascension hospitals in Kansas to unionize.
Both hospitals unionized amid a national shortage of registered nurses. Many nurses left their careers in the wake of the pandemic, which sent hospitals scrambling to add more beds and left people waiting for care.
Ascension is a Catholic, not-for-profit healthcare system. Ascension is 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 14, 2023 at 1:45 PM.