Nurses say yes to third hospital walkout

Fremont-Rideout nurses voted to strike for the third time in less than a year in hopes of getting hospital officials back to the negotiating table, it was announced Thursday night.

No strike date or length of strike was set. Bargaining team member Darren Cardoza, a Fremont Medical Center ICU registered nurse, said the bargaining team will meet next week to discuss those details.

The decision came after a two-day vote. Jean De Lange, a RN in the postpartum unit at Fremont said a "strong majority" — 88 percent of the nursing population — voted in favor of the strike.

Cardoza said the move is a way for nurses to stick up for themselves.

"This is our most effective bargaining tool," he said. Hospital administration "is not bargaining in good faith."

Cardoza claimed that nurses have been treated unfairly, threatened and interrogated and discouraged from participating in the union.

Roughly two-thirds of the eligible nurses voted to reject the administration's "best and final" offer in January. More than 500 nurses are employed at Fremont and Rideout hospitals.

Tresha Moreland, vice president of human resources at Fremont-Rideout Health Group, said a strike will not change the final offer, which is still on the table.

"We are disappointed" there is going to be another strike, Moreland said. "We feel there is nothing left to negotiate, and a strike isn't going to change that."

The final offer includes changes to employee benefit packages, such as reduced health care premium costs to employees and the addition of an employer match to a 403b retirement plan. It addresses seniority issues and provides a 5.5 percent pay increase. The plan, Moreland said, also addresses nurses' concerns over patient safety standards.

Nurse-to-patient ratios are a matter of state law, Moreland said.

"We also want to remain competitive" for recruitment and retention of nurses, she said.

Moreland said Fremont-Rideout has already begun to explore options to find replacement nurses during the strike.

The first strike was for one day, Aug. 31. The union reported more than 200 nurses participated.

The last strike was in October for two days. Hospital officials said more than half of the registered nurses reported to work.

Contact Appeal-Democrat reporter Andrea Koskey at 749-4709 or akoskey@appealdemocrat.com