Nurses and other healthcare staff at St. Rose Dominican Hospital are worried about the future of their jobs. Contact negotiations have been going for several months and there is still no agreement in sight.
Hundreds of health care members picketed in front of the hospital because they say they are not being heard. Now they are calling on the public for help, warning it's the public's health care that will be affected if it not solved soon.
Even as they stand picketing in front of the hospital, workers still admit the health care here is the best. But they warn if they are forced to leave the quality will follow.
"We work together as a team, so you keep the same nurses, you get better care quality of care," said Mary Johnson.
Johnson has been at St. Rose for eight years. She has never seen contracts take this long to work out and she fears in the end, it will be the patients who will lose out, "They are going to be waiting longer. They are not going to have as well of care. They are not going to be as happy with their care."
She says all nurses care about their patents, but a good nurses are hard to find, "The turn over is lower here, but if they are not going to send over a contract, people are going to go elsewhere and patient care is going to suffer."
Some of the factors looking to drive them away is raises of only 2-percent and heath care insurance, they say, is far less than what their own patents have.
"Not only do we need quality health care for the health care providers, but we also feel that we are entitled to retirement, to a better wage scale, to just good benefits," said Amy Thacker.
Thacker is also a nurse at the hospital. She warns without a good contract, not only will good healthcare providers leave in search of better benefits, but more will not be there to take their place, "To attract quality nurses, you need a quality contract."
In response to Friday's rally, the hospital released a statement saying they have, "Been bargaining in good faith with the SEIU Nevada bargaining team and we look forward to further progress toward a new contract agreement that meets our mutual objectives.
"Our goal in bargaining has been to achieve a contract that will benefit our patients, our employees and our organization."
Most everyone agrees that a strike is not something they want. They hope the rally worked to get management attention and things will be resolved soon. source
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