DC Mayor Calls For "Fairness" At Washington Hospital Center

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)

With a 1-day nurses' strike just days away, DC Mayor Vincent Gray has called Washington Hospital Center CEO Ken Samet to express his concern about the strike. "We don't want to see this happen," Gray said in his weekly press conference Tuesday morning. "We want to see people treated fairly." Gray also let the hospital boss know that the city "can ill afford a disruption of services," according to Gray Chief of Staff Gerri Mason Hall. Hall met with a delegation of WHC nurses Tuesday morning in her Wilson Building office. "The Mayor stressed the need to come back to the table to genuinely discuss the issues with you and truly focus on a resolution," she assured the nurses. "We just want to do the nursing," said nurse Alicia Rucker, a member of the WHC National Nurses Union bargaining team, "but until all the units are fully staffed, we can't do our jobs properly. We have to be sharp; we save lives, while MedStar (which owns WHC) sits on billions of dollars." - report/photo by Chris Garlock