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July 13, 2007

Union members, protesting 'traveling nurses,' picket

PROVIDENCE -- Dozens of union members picketed outside Women & Infants Hospital today to protest the hiring of three “traveling nurses” to fill any empty shifts that may occur in the neonatal intensive-care unit.

The traveling nurses work for an agency that provides temporary nurses to hospitals. The hospital hired the three nurses for 12 weeks starting June 18, but so far only one was needed to fill a single, 12-hour shift in the NICU, according to Paula Gillette, senior vice president for patient care services. Otherwise they have been standing by, working administrative duties.

Gillette said that the hospital did not have serious staffing problems, but feared that some shifts would be hard to fill in the NICU. She said she hired the travelers to make sure there would be no mandatory overtime.

But Wendy Laprade, a labor room nurse and union leader, said the hospital has avoided hiring travelers until now, and the decision hit a nerve.

“The only time there were travelers in this building was when they were scabs,” she said, recalling the bitter contract dispute in the winter of 1998-99. In that dispute, the union staged a 1-day walkout, the hospital refused to let them return for 29 more days, and traveling nurses were brought into replace them.

Wearing signs that said “Be Fair to Those Who Care,” members of District 1199 of the New England Health Care Employees Union marched around the building and handed out leaflets that said, “Would you want to be cared for by a nurse with one foot out the door?” The union represents about 1,700 hospital employees, including 700 nurses.

-- Journal medical writer Felice J. Freyer

Posted by Mike McKinney  at 5:46 PM | Permalink

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