St. Luke's Statement on Second Day of Strike
Caring for our region
St. Luke’s Hospital is not on divert. All areas of our hospital are open for patients, and we have been accepting and caring for patients from across the region.
Return to work
We will welcome our nurses back to St. Luke’s on Thursday morning at 7 am.
Federal mediation
St. Luke’s supports bringing in a federal mediator. A mediator uses their expertise to help the parties find common areas of agreement they may not have identified themselves. They are skilled at understanding when parties should be talking across the table and when the parties should be working independently so that an agreement can be reached.
St. Luke’s leadership is engaged 24/7/365
RN nurse managers, including an RN Administrative Supervisor, are on site 24/7/365. In addition, we also always have a Director and member of the Executive Team on call.
St. Luke’s is responsible for the safe staffing of our hospital
Proposals by MNA leadership aim to prioritize a nurse’s preference over patient needs. No single individual at St. Luke’s, including physicians and administrators, has the ability to refuse to provide care to a patient. These decisions must be made by a healthcare team, including nurses, who understands the needs of patients in every unit of the hospital.
Many MNA staffing proposals would negatively impact staffing
St. Luke’s has talked extensively with MNA about staffing, and the reality is that many of the proposals made by union leaders would hurt staffing, rather than improve it. For example:
· MNA wants to require St. Luke’s to give evening and night nurses an additional day off before a scheduled vacation day.
· MNA wants to prevent nurses on units that are overstaffed for a shift from being reassigned to other units to take care of patients.
· MNA wants to prevent trained, qualified nurses who are not in the union from picking up shifts that remain unfilled by union nurses.
Maternity leave and pregnancy loss
Staff nurses are guaranteed 6 months off for maternity leave. They can use all sick time, vacation time or personal days to cover their leave.
St. Luke’s nurses can use paid sick time after experiencing a miscarriage. St. Luke’s has made clear that nurses who miss work as a result of a miscarriage will be fully excused from their shifts without penalty.