Hospital Responds To AZ’s First Planned Nurses Strike This Friday

TUCSON, AZ — Registered nurses employed at Tucson’s St. Joseph’s and St. Mary’s hospitals are refusing to report to work for 24 hours beginning Friday, Sept. 20 at 7 a.m. The strike, the first of its kind for Arizona, is part of a tri-state nurses’ strike in Arizona, Florida and California that day. The strike was announced Tuesday by National Nurses United union officials, and is expected to involve 6,500 registered nurses employed by Tenet Hospitals in the three states. In response, Tenet Hospitals issued a media statement Tuesday night.

The strike is organized by the National Nurses United union, the largest RN union in the nation, which St. Mary’s and St. Joseph’s nurses joined in October 2018 by votes of 221-85 and 293-100 respectively, according to Arizona Daily Star archives. In May, registered nurses at St. Mary's and St. Joseph's had picketed the hospitals without striking, with the same basic goal as Friday’s planned strike, according to news reports. Officials from National Nurses United confirmed that the strike’s goal is to persuade Tenet Hospital management to “invest in nursing staff to ensure optimal patient care at their facilities.” RN Janice Ames, who will participate in Friday’s strike, said in a statement, “With this strike action, we are expressing our unity and commitment to win conditions that support this goal.”

Since last year, Tenet Hospitals has been negotiating a contractual boost to its RN staffing numbers at its facilities, in an attempt to come closer to optimizing nurse-to-patient ratios. KOLD reported that in St. Joseph’s Progressive Care Unit, which cares for patients needing more care than a typical care unit but not as much care as in ICU, an optimal ratio is one nurse to three patients. At St. Joseph’s, up to eight PCU patients might be attended by one nurse.

In a media statement issued Tuesday night, Tenet Hospitals responded to the pending strike Friday at its facilities:

“The National Nurses Organizing Committee, the labor union that represents many of our nurses, has announced its intention to hold a strike on Sept. 20 at St. Joseph’s and St. Mary’s hospitals. This activity is related to contract negotiations between the union and eight California hospitals, and that same union is also involved in separate contract negotiations for nurses at St. Joseph’s and St. Mary’s.

“All of our nurses are valued employees and we recognize their service and commitment to patient care. We are committed to resolving the contract negotiations. Providing our patients with safe, high-quality care is of the utmost importance and remains our focus. Patients and their loved ones can be assured that all our patients will continue to be cared for by qualified registered nurses and other caregivers during any strike action.

“The union has decided to call a strike at multiple facilities across the nation; however, we are still in preliminary negotiations with our newly formed local union and have established what we believe to be a respectful, professional and productive relationship. We have been negotiating in good faith with union representatives over the last few months in an effort to reach a new contract, which we have made considerable progress on, and we will continue to negotiate in hopes of reaching a successful resolution.”

KOLD reported that other union members including a bus load from Phoenix will join the strike as picketers at St. Mary’s and St. Joseph’s hospitals, with picketing shift-changes every two or three hours. Shade, food, water, signs and security will be provided by the Pima Area Labor Federation.