Nurses union claims Kapiʻolaniʻs threat is reckless, illegal

HONOLULU (KHON2) — Nurses at Kapiʻolani Medical Center still intend to strike on Friday after another unsuccessful day at the bargaining table with hospital administration.

The union that represents the nurses said the hospitalʻs threat to lock them out is reckless and illegal.

“I would say there was probably no progress. We just kept going over the same issues that weʻve been going over and theyʻre refusing to budge,” Kapiʻolaniʻs chief steward, Paulette Vasu, RN told KHON2.

After almost a year of negotiations HNA, who represents roughly 600 nurses at the hospital, and Kapiʻolani officials have been unable to come to an agreement.

Nurses walked off the job for a week in January and announced their intent to strike again for one day, Sept. 13, claiming unfair labor practices.

“The problem is we write out unsafe staffing forms and then we get pulled into managementʻs office and we feel like weʻre being harassed and we feel like we should be able to put these out because itʻs for patient safety,” Vasu said.

Kapiʻolani administration gave the union an ultimatum on Wednesday–take their deal or they will not be allowed back to work.

“The lockout would begin when HNA strike ends,” said COO Gidget Ruscetta in a news conference.

The union condemns the plan to lockout nurses and call it reckless and illegal.

“The nurses were very upset after receiving the news that we were going to be locked out yesterday. So theyʻre very angry and weʻve tried to talk to them about different things that we want but they wonʻt budge on certain issues,” Vasu continued.

According to the National Labor Relations Board, “employees who strike to protest an unfair labor practice committed by their employer are called unfair labor practice strikers. Such strikers can be neither discharged nor permanently replaced. When the strike ends, unfair labor strikers, absent serious misconduct on their part, are entitled to have their jobs back even if employees hired to do their work have to be discharged.”

In a statement, Ruscetta said, “We are confident in our legal position. The lockout is to encourage the nursesʻ union to accept our fair and generous offer so we can move forward. Negotiations are ongoing and we remain committed to reaching an agreement for the benefit of our nurses.”

The nurses union called on Gov. Green to intervene.

The hospital will bring in temporary nurses and said they are prepared to keep them for as long as it takes the nurses to accept their offer.