WHC Nurses May Stage 1-Day Strike Over Firings

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)

Washington Hospital Center nurses are voting on staging a one-day strike to mark the six-month anniversary of firings in the wake of the February blizzards. If approved by members, the one-day Unfair Labor Practice strike would take place in August, six months after 18 nurses were retroactively fired and disciplined for being unable to show up to work during the historic blizzards (Nurses Prepared For Battle At Washington Hospital Center 3/4/2010 Union City). "Enough is enough" said Stephen Frum, a nurse at the hospital, and chief shop steward of Nurses United, which represents over 1,600 WHC nurses. "It is far past time for the hospital to do the right thing." In February, following the snow storms, Washington Hospital Center management unilaterally made it a disciplinary offense not to show up to work during a snow emergency. “They then retroactively and selectively applied this policy to fire certain nurses – including longtime nurse and union leader Geri Lee -- who did not make it to work during the blizzards,” says Frum. “Adding insult to injury, they then prevented nurses from wearing black ribbons in solidarity with those who were unjustly disciplined.” Despite the union’s efforts to resolve this issue, management continues to keep nine of the original eighteen fired nurses out of work and has refused to remove the discipline from the nurses’ records.” The possible one-day strike comes in the context of ongoing contract negotiations; nurses have been without a contract since June (Washington Hospital Nurses Reject Contract 6/29/2010 Union City). - photo: almost 2000 nurses rallied in May for a fair contract outside the Washington Hospital Center; photo by Adam Wright