NEW ORLEANS — On Friday, hundreds of University Medical Center nurses began casting their vote for a strike. If the majority of the nurses vote in favor of walking out, they'll have the authority to do so later this month.
The nurses made history last year when they became the first hospital in the state to unionize.
“It was a second line, Mardi Gras and Christmas all rolled into one," UMC RN Terry Mogilles said.
The union has been in negotiations with the hospital since March. RN Hailey Dupre has been one of the UMC nurses at the negotiation table.
“One of our biggest obstacles is just having the hospital be present and actually coming to negotiations. We had one day where they walked out and never came back in the rest of the day," Dupre said.
The hospital stressed that nurses are not on strike at this time, and UMC will be open and fully operational.
"UMC is committed to the negotiation process and to reaching a labor contract with the NNU that allows us to attract and retain outstanding RNs and continue to deliver exceptional care to our patients and community," a spokesperson for University Medical Center New Orleans said.
Nurses have said for months they demand safer working conditions and better pay and benefits.
“We’ve reached agreements on jury duty leave, we’re working on bereavement leave, but it’s really like our staffing ratios, our pay proposal," Dupre said, "We’re still waiting to hear back some kind of productive counterproposals from them."
Nurses are casting their vote on Friday and Saturday. The union plans to announce the results on Monday.
Mogilles said that she's prepared to strike.
"If it comes to that, yes," Mogilles said.
If they get enough votes, they will have the authorization to call a strike, but first, they are required to give UMC a 10-day notice.
“In that case, UMC has contingency plans in place to ensure ongoing access to care," UMC New Orleans said.
“That gives them time to transport out patients who might be more critically ill, to cancel elective procedures and to even get other staff in who are willing to cross the picket line to come and work," Dupre said.
Dupre said that right now, the union consists of roughly 600 nurses. However, they're fighting for approximately 200 more to join that are not full-time.
Mogilles has been a nurse for 40 years and worked at Charity Hospital. She believes what they're fighting for will lead to better care for patients.
“It needs to happen for the healthcare of the community," Mogilles said, “To be able to galvanize nurses across the spectrum, across age, race, discipline, specialty, all for the community to know that we’re going to be giving our community better care, safer care, in a safer environment – there are no words.”
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