Health & Fitness
Tensions Rise At Clara Maass Hospital As NJ Nurses Rally For Contracts
Management says they offered the nurses a raise – which they turned down. Meanwhile, the suspension of 9 nurses has thrown gas on the fire.
BELLEVILLE, NJ — The heat is rising in an increasingly bitter labor standoff at Clara Maass Medical Center in Belleville.
On Tuesday, a large crowd of unionized nurses and their supporters with 1199SEIU marched on a picket line at the hospital, demanding that administrators speed up contract talks that have allegedly hit a brick wall.
In August 2022, nearly 540 registered nurses (RNs) at the RWJBarnabas Health facility voted to form a union with 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East. In a mail-ballot election, nearly 8 in 10 nurses voted in favor of unionization.
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Union spokespeople said that “safe staffing,” job security, pay and benefits were among the most important issues.
After the unionization vote, Mary Ellen Clyne, president and CEO of Clara Maass Medical Center, said hospital administrators “acknowledge and respect the right of our nursing staff to decide on whether or not union representation is in their best long- and short-term interest.”
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“We will do everything we can to continue to make the hospital the best possible workplace it can be,” Clyne said. “Working together, collegially, with all of our health care professionals, we will continue to advance our health care mission across our community.”
However, since then, the newly formed union hasn’t been able to ink its first work contract with the hospital. And workers are getting fed up, their union said Tuesday.
At the bargaining table, the nurses continue to call for improvements in pay, benefits and working conditions, as well as more training and educational resources for precepting others.
The workers are also looking for a more active voice in how their workplace is run, including determining staffing guidelines – something that’s been opposed by management, according to 1199SEIU.
“It’s ironic that a hospital named after a nurse heroine, Clara Maass, who gave her life for the advancement of medical research, would treat their own nursing staff in such a deplorable manner,” 1199SEIU executive vice president Rhina Molina said.
“We demand that management respect their nurses and to agree to a fair contract that RNs need to protect the standards of their profession and safeguard patient care,” Molina added.
Clara Maass administrators have insisted that they are trying to work with the union in good faith until a deal can be struck, and have already put a significant pay bump on the table … one that the nurses have inexplicably turned down.
It’s a stance that they maintained prior to Tuesday’s rally.
“We recognize our nurses’ right to organize and are committed to working in good faith with their union through the collective bargaining process,” a Clara Maass spokesperson told Patch on Monday evening. “Because we value our nurses, their hard work, and their dedication to our patients, we immediately offered the union a market adjustment wage increase at the very first negotiations session. The union rejected that offer.”
“We hope the union will reconsider our offer to increase nurses’ pay so these increases can go into effect as soon as possible,” they added.
- See Related: Belleville Hospital Outpaces Others Nearby In Latest Federal Rating
- See Related: Clara Maass Hospital Gets 'High Performing' Ratings From U.S. News
NURSES SUSPENDED
As contract talks drag on, an incident involving the suspension of nine nurses at the hospital with a combined 100 years of job experience has thrown gasoline on the fire.
According to the union, a nurse at the hospital was “suspended without just cause for an incident prompted by the acute staffing shortage at the hospital, despite the nurse following all hospital procedures and acting to protect the safety of her patient and herself.” A petition that has been launched in support of the nurse says that the incident involved the insertion of an IV/midline.
On April 26, nine other nurses at the hospital tried to deliver the petition to management after it was signed by more than 170 health care workers at the facility.
The result? More suspensions, their union says.
“It’s outrageous that management suspended us for speaking up for each other in the middle of a chronic nurse shortage,” said Tanya Howard, who works in the hospital’s ICU unit. “Since many of the suspended nurses are strong leaders in our union, we feel targeted.”
1199SEIU said it has filed federal unfair labor practice charges in the wake of the incident.
Clara Maass administrators have disputed the union’s claims, calling them “inaccurate” and “disingenuous.” The suspensions are not related to the union election or the ongoing contract negotiations, spokespeople told Patch on Monday.
“RWJBarnabas always has been and always will be a union-friendly organization that values our nurses, their hard work and their dedication to our patients,” they said. “That is why it is important to correct the factually inaccurate and disingenuous statements distributed by 1199SEIU about employee suspensions at Clara Maass.”
The hospital’s statement offered the following details about the incident:
“The initial disciplinary action of a nurse at the hospital stemmed from their actions with regard to patient care that not only violated hospital protocols, it was also so egregious that it likely would have violated protocols of care at any hospital. In fact, the action and subsequent discipline was reviewed and sanctioned by the employee’s peers through a standard peer review process that the union was fully aware of and participated in. Other employees were disciplined after a large group of individuals, including Clara Maass Medical Center nursing staff and an unauthorized non-employee representative, surrounded an experienced nursing director on a patient unit and in front of patient rooms to challenge the suspension of the individual involved in the original patient issue. The manager felt so intimidated and threatened for their personal safety that the director filed a formal complaint. Such behavior cannot and will not be tolerated and will be met with swift and decisive action.”
Nurses at Clara Maass have contended that it’s not a good time to be taking veteran health care workers off the playing field, however.
According to 1199SEIU, New Jersey is already facing a severe and growing nursing shortage, and Clara Maass is among those “hemorrhaging staff” as experienced RNs retire or leave for better opportunities.
“We are asking for fair compensation and our long overdue raises to stop losing qualified RNs and improve patient care, but management keeps saying no,” said Audrey Chio, one of the workers who supported Tuesday’s rally.
LAWMAKERS WEIGH IN
Two U.S. Congress members recently issued statements in support of the workers at Clara Maass, urging the hospital to “negotiate in good faith” with the union.
Rep. Mikie Sherrill (NJ-11) and Rep. Donald Payne Jr. (NJ-10) each sent letters to the CEO of Clara Maass earlier this week.
According to Sherrill – who represents Belleville among other North Jersey towns:
“As I have spoken to nurses and labor organizers at Clara Maass Medical Center, I have heard concerns about unsafe staffing and working conditions, substandard patient care policies, and wages and benefits that have not kept up with the cost of living in New Jersey. A fair contract that addresses each of these concerns will not only give these nurses the support and benefits that they so deserve, but will also help to improve operations at the medical center as a whole. At a time when the health care sector is facing an acute nurse shortage nationwide and burnout in the profession has led to rapid turnover, improved working conditions and pay will help to alleviate labor shortages and keep critical positions filled at Clara Maass.”
Payne pointed out that it wasn’t long ago that the nation was calling nurses and health care workers “heroes” for battling on the front-line of the coronavirus pandemic. And they deserve a “fair wage and proper benefits” to reward them for their efforts, he said.
New Jersey Assemblywoman Britnee Timberlake, who is running for a seat in the Senate this year that would represent Belleville and other towns in the 34th Legislative district, also said that she “stands in solidarity” with the nurses and their union.
“The work they do as they care for their patients is life changing and lifesaving,” Timberlake said. “I am asking, imploring, and hoping that management will come to the bargaining table in good faith.”
- See Related: Belleville Hospital Workers Earn 'Crisis Response' Award
- See Related: Clara Maass Hospital Gets Nods For Stroke Treatment, Bariatric Surgery
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