Nurses at a Baltimore hospital that treats low-income patients launched a one-day strike Thursday against the company that operates it — a dramatic move they believe can pressure the hospital into addressing years-long frustrations over unsafe staffing levels, high nurse turnover, and inadequate patient care.
The strike at Ascension Saint Agnes Hospital comes during contentious, 18-month-long negotiations between Missouri-based Ascension Health and the national union that represents the nurses. This is the first time caregivers in Baltimore have walked off the job.
The nurses say poor working conditions at the hospital put them under unnecessary stress and endangers the hospital’s patients — a disproportionate number of whom are Black.
“Suboptimal” Patient Care Is Not OK
“Hospital management told us that they are OK with ‘suboptimal’ patient care when we brought this issue to the bargaining table,” Gideon Eziama, a cardiology nurse, said in a statement issued by the nurses’ union, National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United. “That is completely unacceptable, and that is why we are striking.”…