REPORT: October/November 2006

Interfaith nurses say they won’t “work for peanuts”

by Rolando Tomas Infante

RNs at Brooklyn’s Interfaith Medical Center held a three-hour informational picket in front of the hospital on Wednesday, Oct. 25, saying experienced RNs will not tolerate working for “peanuts.”

“We’ve been trying to negotiate a new contract at Interfaith for more than a year,” said Camille Edwards, NYSNA nursing representative. “The problem lies with the hospital’s salary proposals. They’re so inadequate that the nurses would be working for ‘peanuts.’”

This became the theme for many of the chants echoed by the picketing nurses. The nurses’ most recent contract expired on Jan. 1, 2006. This was the second picket.
Nurses say their workloads have increased two-fold because of the closing of nearby St. Mary’s Hospital, and that management has not hired enough RNs to help ease the burden.

The hospital has hired about two dozen RNs through a temporary agency on a long-term contract. NYSNA believes this expense is an unnecessary drain on hospital resources, and better spent on competitive salaries.

Management raised the stakes after the picket when it reversed its position on staffing and revived a proposal to make cutbacks in RN staff. NYSNA plans to file an unfair labor practice (ULP) charge against the hospital for “bad faith bargaining.”