After nearly a year of stalled negotiations, nurses from The Queen’s Medical Center campuses at Punchbowl and West Oahu are voting on whether to authorize a strike.
Represented by the Hawaii Nurses’ Association, over 1,900 nurses are calling for action against what they describe as unfair labor practices by the hospital, including a failure to take their proposals seriously.
Electronic voting began Thursday and will remain open until 5 p.m. Dec. 31.
The nurses have been working without a contract since their previous agreement expired on June 30. The union seeks improvements to staffing levels and competitive compensation in a new three-year contract, but negotiations with hospital management have yet to yield an agreement.
Staffing ratios have been a central issue in the negotiations, according to the president of the Hawaii Nurses’ Association, Rosalee Agas-Yuu, who has been a nurse at Kapi‘olani Medical Center since 1993.
The strike authorization vote follows failed attempts to reach an agreement, reflecting growing frustration among nurses who say their concerns about safety and working conditions have been overlooked.
Linda Puu, chief nursing executive for The Queen’s Health Systems, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that the hospital does “not want a strike and remain hopeful a contract that both Queen’s and our nurses can be proud of can be reached.”
“The Queen’s Medical Center remains committed to reaching an agreement with HNA,” Puu said.
Nurses argue that the hospital has failed to ensure the minimum number of staff needed to meet patient care demands, leaving existing employees overburdened.
With Queen’s being a complex health care entity that includes multiple campuses, numerous units and specialized services, the need for adequate staffing is even greater.
The hospital employs approximately 1,800 to 2,000 nurses but has relied heavily on traveling nurses through staffing agencies to address shortages.
Adding to the frustration, nurses say negotiations have been a drawn- out process since the beginning of the year, involving extensive back-and-forth discussions.
“We began our discussions at the bargaining table with the hospital’s management well before the contract expired,” Agas-Yuu said in a statement. “Unfortunately, there has been no progress on the issues that are most important to us: safe nurse-to-patient staffing levels and competitive compensation to retain experienced nurses.”
Agas-Yuu emphasized the potential impact of a strike on the community, noting that Queen’s is Hawaii’s only designated Level 1 trauma center and provides critical emergency services for West and Central Oahu.
“No one wants a strike, but many of the nurses feel this is the only way to be heard and to motivate CEO Jason Chang and the hospital’s leaders to take action to create a safer environment for Hawaii patients,” Agas-Yuu said.
