MADISON, Wis. — Hundreds of nurses at UW Health voted by 99% on Wednesday to go on strike, demanding recognition of their union and an improvement in patient care.
The strike, which could happen as soon as next month, comes as nurses say they are dealing with understaffing, turnover, cuts, as well as exhaustion and burnout.
Though walking off the job seems imminent, the nurses are open to discussion with administration as long as the UW Health Board recognizes their union.
Shari Signer has worked at UW Health for nearly two decades, spending 15 years providing care as a nurse.
“It's a dire situation at UW,” Signer said. “In 2014, when we lost our union contract, I remember the day the hospital administration promised us that they would take care of us.”
UW nurses were once members of SEIU Healthcare Wisconsin, but when their last union contract expired in 2014, the hospital administration chose not to negotiate a new agreement due to Wisconsin Act 10. Signer was working for UW at the time, so she knows what it is like to have a union and how circumstances can change without one.
“It lasted maybe two or three months and then cut after cut started happening,” Signer explained. “All of those cuts were directed towards hourly employees. They took away, you know vacation time, hourly differentials, health care changes, increases to our benefits that we had to pay, and then as the years went on, then they started to impact the patients, and that is when the nursing staff got involved.”
Citing a budget crisis, Signer said the hospital cut back on staffing and expected nurses to do the same amount of work, which she feels has caused the quality of patient care to drop.
A majority of UW nurses have been calling for their union to be recognized for nearly three years. After months of protests, more than 1,500 nurses have signed cards calling for a union, which would include a total of about 2,600 members if recognized. UW Health employs a total of roughly 3,400 nurses.
“Not one single nurse is hoping that this goes through,” Signer said. “It's very terrifying for every single one of us, but we're doing it for the patients.”
In a statement, UW Health questioned whether a union would be legal under state law since the passage of Act 10 in 2011 and said the health care system's nursing turnover rate is roughly half of the national average. After hiring more than 300 new nurses, UW Health stated that its vacancy rate is well below the majority of health systems.
“The decision by SEIU to conduct a strike is disappointing,” the statement read. “They will harm patients knowing that their actions will not gain them an answer to these legal questions. They will also harm patients knowing there is a better option. The Attorney General Opinion suggested that the union could petition the state for recognition through traditional channels. Taking that route would avoid a strike and move us closer to getting a definitive answer from the courts on whether UW Health can legally recognize and bargain with a union."
If nurses do ultimately strike, they will give UW Health at least 10 days of notice so administrators can prepare and ensure patient safety. The strike would last from 7 a.m. on Sept. 13. through 7 a.m. on Sept. 16.