By WPRO News and the Associated Press
A strike by nurses at two Rhode Island hospitals is on.
About 2,400 nurses and other health care workers at Rhode Island Hospital and Hasbro Children’s Hospital are scheduled to start a weeklong strike on Monday afternoon.
The strike was set by Local 5098 of the United Nurses and Allied Professionals after it rejected a contract proposal by hospital operator Lifespan. The nurses union said it made a final offer to the hospital on Monday morning, but that the offer went unanswered, so the strike is moving forward.
“This is a difficult thing for [the nurses] to be doing, but they understand what’s at stake for themselves, their families, and their patients, and they understand that unless Lifespan is forced to make change within Rhode Island hospital, then patient care will continue to be adversely impacted,” union spokesperson Ray Sullivan told WPRO’s Tara Granahan.
Rhode Island Hospital released a statement saying the union’s offer was unrealistic.
“The union rejected a restructured proposal from the hospital that included generous wage increases ranging from 9 to 25 percent over four years. Instead, UNAP leadership submitted wage increases of up to 28%, and added significant additional economic proposals that rendered their offer simply unrealistic,” it said.
State Department of Health Director Nicole Alexander-Scott said that Department of Health staff will be at the hospitals, and that the nurses that were hired to fill in during the strike are experienced.
“This is a company that deals with strike management, so there is reassurance there,” she said.
