Thousands of nurses with Stanford and Lucile Packard Children's hospitals began striking on Monday, calling for a fair contract to address "the professional and personal crises nurses are facing."
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Approximately 5,000 nurses picketed across two blocks at the main intersection of Stanford Hospital near the facility's entrance on Monday morning.
The nurses' contract expired on March 31 and talks up to now have been unsuccessful between management and the union called the Committee for Recognition of Nursing Achievement, resulting in 93% — over 4,500 — of union nurses authorizing a strike.
Staffing is at the core of the dispute.
"If we don't get nurses here then we won't be able to staff our hospitals in a safe way for our patients," Colleen Borges, pediatric nurse at Lucille Packard for 27 years and president CRONA, told KCBS Radio. "We want to be able to get this so we can get back in there and care for our patients."
Borges said that they are asking Stanford and Packard to solve the burnout and exhaustion issues that are causing many nurses to "reconsider the profession."
Approximately 45% of nurses surveyed by the union last November said they considered leaving both hospitals, according to a CRONA press release,
"The hospital is just expecting us to do more and more with fewer and fewer staff. They reward us with pizza and cookies. Things like that," Andrew Veitch, a Stanford operating room and neurosurgery nurse, added. "There’s no sustainability, they don't provide us with a sustainable workplace."
In response to the strike, Stanford Health Care said in a statement it will continue to work diligently towards a contract agreement, while also standing by its decision to cut off health benefits to striking nurses. The hospital said the strike is disruptive to patients, and they have offered wage increases that have kept the nurses among the highest paid in the nation.
"Stanford hospital has a lot of money, they got a lot of federal aid — over $600 million in federal aid — they are a private hospital that makes a lot of money," Borges said. "We are their support, and if they show that they value us, invest in us, it is only going to be better for them."
Both sides will return to the bargaining table on Tuesday. The union said they do not have an end date for the strike.
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