Nurses Ratify New Contract At Washington Hospital Center

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)

Nurses at Washington Hospital Center voted Friday and Saturday to ratify a new contract with their employer. The new agreement, which covers 1,650 RNs in Washington’s largest hospital, includes a new staffing matrix that will increase the number of nurses at the bedside and a new Professional Practice Committee to address and solve issues related to patient care and staffing issues. The new contract requires hospital managers to meet with the nurse committee on a regular basis and respond to proposals to improve patient care at the facility. The nurses – members of National Nurses United --raised patient safety as a significant issue in contract negotiations. “This was a long and difficult struggle,” said Emma Bioc, a WHC nurse and union bargaining committee member. “I am proud that the nurses stood in solidarity with each other and for our patients.  This contract respects our professional practice, our expertise and dedication.” The new agreement raises most nurses’ hourly base rate wages between 8.5% and 9.0% over three and a half years.  It also restores the differential pay for nurses who work evenings, nights, and weekends to pre-March 2011 levels for 30 months of the 42-month agreement.  The agreement also includes a return to work for eight nurses fired during the back-to-back snow storms in February 2010.  Another nurse whose firing the union claimed was unjust was also returned to work as part of the agreement.  Previously, the union won back the jobs of the ten other nurses who were fired following the snow storm. “I am so glad that those of us who were unjustly fired after the snow storm have won our jobs back,” added Linda Buckman, a 31-year nurse who was fired after the storm.  “It is only because we have a strong union that my co-workers and I are able to return to work with dignity and care for our patients.” – photos: (top) thousands rallied outside the Washington Hospital Center on March 4 to support striking nurses; (bottom) WHC nurses and labor allies demonstrated outside the April 14 House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on Capitol Hill at which controversial Wisconsin governor Scott Walker appeared; photos by Chris Garlock