Las Palmas Medical Center and Del Sol Medical Center are two of three Texas hospitals part of a possible strike.
On Monday, 7,000 registered nurses at 15 hospitals across the United States voted to authorize their nurse negotiators to call a strike if the issues they’re raising aren’t solved.
As KTSM previously reported, nurses are demanding that hospitals invest in their nursing staff, for management to address the high turnover rates and to maintain proper staffing levels with proper experience.
Nurses picketed outside of both hospitals in late July and early August.
But, if a strike were to happen, it wouldn’t be anytime soon.
A local contact with the National Nurses Organizing Committee tells KTSM there are still at least two negotiation meetings happening in the next few weeks.
If the nurses were to move forward with a strike, by law, they’d have to give the hospitals a 10 day notice so the facilities can make the proper arrangements with patients and staff.
Nurses have been working without contracts since June 30 as negotiations continue.
The hospitals released a joint statement saying:
“We are very proud of our caregivers and the culture of compassion we have developed at our hospitals, which is based on open communication and a shared commitment to providing the highest quality of patient care. It is not uncommon for tactics like this to be used when a union and an employer are in contract negotiations, as we are with this nursing union. We have bargaining dates scheduled later this month, and we look forward to the union’s response to the proposal we provided to them back in August.
We want to assure our community that neither this – nor any other action – will ever come between us and our commitment to the high-quality care and services we offer our patients and this community on a daily basis.”
–Jerry Gonzalez, Chief Nursing Officer, Las Palmas Medical Center, and Annie Garcia, Chief Nursing Officer, Del Sol Medical Center.
