Ascension will keep Wichita nurses off past 1-day strike. Union calls it scare tactic
Ascension Via Christi has told St. Francis and St. Joseph nurses who have planned a one-day strike on Tuesday that, if they don’t work that day, they will not be able to work again until July 1.
The same goes for nurses who weren’t already scheduled to work that day.
Ascension told the nurses — and also their counterparts who are also striking at a hospital in Austin, Texas — that the company is “contractually required” to hire replacement registered nurses for at least four days.
The nurses, who are in the middle of negotiating their first-ever contract with the health care giant after unionizing, say it is a scare tactic.
“Management absolutely does not have to extend this strike for an additional three days with a lockout,” Whitney Steinike, a registered nurse at the St. Joseph adolescent psychiatric unit, said in a news release. “But they seem to think it’ll scare the nurses if they threaten to, but all this truly confirms is the power our organizing is building to make our hospitals better.”
In the union news release, Shelly Rader, a registered nurse in the St. Francis emergency room, said the extra three days is forcing nurses away from patients in the same way Ascension is “forcing nurses away from the bedside every day with their mismanagement of our hospitals.”
Ascension declined to say who it is contracting with or provide a copy of the contract. Representatives also referred any statement to what was in the June 16 email nurses received. The email went out the day after the National Nurses Organizing Commission announced the one-day strike.
The NNOC, an affiliate of the National Nurses United, the country’s largest registered nurses union, said in the news release that four-day lockout is a “ploy to intimidate nurses from speaking out and demanding action on the conditions they decided to strike over.”
Ascension said it would have preferred not to use the contracted services.
“Ascension Via Christi would prefer not to have to utilize these extended contracted services, particularly given the current challenges the healthcare industry, including our ministry, is facing, but we must make every provision for ensuring the health and safety of our patients, families, providers and associates,” the email said.
Nurses were told they would have to notify management by Friday if they intended to work the day of the strike. If they work, they will also be able to work their normal schedule during that four days.
Ascension also said the strike is “disconcerting and disappointing” given that there have only been five contract negotiation meetings with St. Francis and one with St. Joseph. Ascension has previously said there were other meetings scheduled through August.
The NNOC says it represents more than 650 nurses at St. Francis. In different news releases, the NNOC has said it represents 300 and then over 350 at St. Joseph.
St. Joseph nurses voted in March, a few months after St. Francis voted, in favor of joining the NNOC. The unionizing comes amid a nationwide shortage of nurses.
Ascension is a Catholic, not-for-profit health care system. Ascension is one of the largest health care 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 24, 2023 at 2:26 PM.