Stanford Hospitals Say They Will Cut Striking Nurses' Pay, Healthcare
PALO ALTO, CA — Stanford Health Care and Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital said Friday that they withhold pay and health insurance for striking nurses and their families, numerous outlets report.
The Committee for Recognition of Nursing Achievement (CRONA), a union of more than 5,000 voted to go on strike Monday, April 25, after failing to reach new contract agreements. 93% of workers voted for the strike, citing the need for better pay, more staff, retaining current medical benefits, less overtime, better mental health care and other methods to alleviate high burnout, more paid time off, and other demands made in light of two years of high-stress care during the pandemic.
The union posted an online petition that called the decision “beyond cruel and insulting.”
“It is beyond cruel and insulting for the hospitals to cut off health care for the nurses who have given everything to the hospitals in these last two years and are simply asking to negotiate common-sense solutions for their patients and their profession — especially when the hospitals reported that their joint operating surplus increased by $676 million in 2021, in addition to a combined revenue of approximately $8.3 billion," the union said in a petition that has garnered 28,270 signatures as of Thursday .
"Instead of trying to address why 93% of eligible nurses voted to go on strike, the hospitals responded with this cruel move that's clearly designed to punish nurses and break their resolve."
The hospital is technically within its rights to strip workers of pay starting Monday, and health care coverage starting May 1. In a statement, Stanford’s Health Care’s chief nurse executive wrote, “This standard practice is not unique to our hospitals and applies to any of our employees on unpaid status, including those who leave the hospital to transition to another job.”
Stanford Health also pointed to a contingency manual that says that if a strike “lasts beyond the end of the month in which it begins and the hospitals discontinue medical coverage, [nurses] have the option to pay for continued coverage.”
However, it is not generally a common practice. Cedars-Sinai Medical, one of the largest health systems in California, has not cut health care to its workers who plan to strike, according to a report in Mother Jones.
This article originally appeared on the Palo Alto Patch
