Hospital workers need fair contracts from Care New England
After nearly two months, the Butler Hospital workers’ unfair labor practice strike is now considered the longest hospital strike in Rhode Island history. On Wednesday, union workers from Butler and Women & Infants Hospital spoke out about Care New England (CNE) ’s sustained campaign of intimidation, harassment, and retaliatory behavior that affected caregivers and their patients.
Beth Iams, an activities therapist and mental health
worker at Butler Hospital for the past 24 years, outlined a series of
escalating CNE tactics against striking workers. “Our unfair labor practice
strike began on May 15 at 6 am in the pouring rain,” said Iams. “Unfortunately,
Butler Hospital and Care New England decided their strategy would be to use
fear and intimidation to get us back to work.
“They started their campaign one week into the strike by
canceling our health insurance as of June 1st. What were we going to do? We all
need health insurance. For many of us, that was the start of the unity,
strength, and resilience that we all possess today. Our union organized HealthSource
Rhode Island to help our members find health insurance so we could all
breathe again.
“Then we returned to the negotiating table, and Butler
offered us less than they offered in the previous negotiations. This will do
it, they thought. We will offer less, and they will break. But guess what? We
didn’t break, right? We stayed unified and we kept going.
“Then they posted our jobs, taunting us with what they know
means so much to all of us. Would we break then? No. Again, we relied on each
other to get through those difficult times. The more they tried to break us,
the closer we became. People who never spoke were now friends and people you
could lean on.
“We finally felt a win. We were approved for unemployment by
the Department of Health, who acknowledged that our strike was a
lockout. What was Butler’s new plan? They filed a restraining order against the
state to block our unemployment until an appeal was heard. This appeal usually
takes 30 to 45 days, so they wanted to block our unemployment payments until
that appeal was heard. They went before a judge and explained how paying us
unemployment would be a hardship for them.
“Fortunately, the judge decided they would not grant the
restraining order, and they lifted the hold on our unemployment benefits. That
was a huge win for us. But guess what Care New England’s latest tactic is?
They’re appealing this decision to the Rhode Island Supreme Court.
Regardless of what they throw at us, we stay strong. Their intimidation efforts
are failing. We will not take less than we deserve. The only way to end this is
to give us the fair contract we need for ourselves, our families, and our
patients.”
The press conference/rally was outside Women & Infants’
Hospital at 101 Dudley Street in Providence. Here’s the video:
On May 15, Women & Infants announced it would lay off at
least nine essential workers during one of the birthing facility’s busiest
seasons. This includes eliminating the entire Pre-Admission Testing (PAT)
department, which plays the vital role of pre-interviewing patients before
surgery to ensure none of their current medications will result in
complications.
“On May 15, the same day that Butler members started their unfair labor practice strike, management notified me that I was being laid off, that my position was considered redundant,” said Shonda Gross, an authorization coordinator at Women & Infants for over 20 years. “When HR told me my position was redundant, I asked them to repeat it because I couldn’t believe what I heard. I’m the only person in my department who does the authorizations. I schedule and submit paperwork to insurance to approve patients for office procedures. Without these office procedures, their surgeries will be canceled because they are considered non-essential.
“I’m one of nine employees who are being laid off, including
the entire department. The pre-admission testing department is being laid off
and they have more years than I do. Management decisions feel personal to me.
It is hard to see anything other than retaliation, a tactic to cause friction
among union workers.
“This is not the first time management has tried to
intimidate or weaken our union. At the end of the day, I worry it is our
patients who will be at the brunt of this decision. By eliminating my position
and the entire pre-admission testing department, I’m concerned that the impact
will be on the patient’s safety, properly coordinating care, and supervising
work being done here.
“It shouldn’t be this way. We come to work every day and put
our patients first. It’s time for the hospital to stop its anti-union tactics
and support us so we can come together to do the work we have dedicated our
entire lives to.”
Last year, during contract negotiations at Women &
Infants, over 90% of the nearly 1,500 Women & Infants union caregivers or
99% of workers who participated, voted to authorize an unfair labor practice
strike after management refused to bargain in good faith and engaged in some
unlawful ani-union behaviors including “intimidating, threatening, and in the
most extreme cases – engaging in impermissive physical acts against union
members in retaliation for their testimony against the hospital in a federal
unfair labor practice trial before an Administrative Law Judge of the National
Labor Relations Board.”
“What’s happening now is nothing new,” said Justine
Iadeluca, a C-section recovery room nurse employed at Women & Infants
for 23 years. “This is how Care New England has always treated its hardworking
healthcare workers, whether it be here at Women & Infants or at Butler
Hospital.
“I stood here last year when CNE refused to bargain in good
faith with the SEIU 1199 New England members at this facility. We were ready to
strike. Thankfully, we reached an agreement, but just like what our brothers
and sisters at Butler Hospital, are experiencing now, CNE continues to
disrespect our union’s rights. Their actions are unlawful, unacceptable, and
dangerous to our profession.
“Instead of transparency, we get silence. Instead of
answers, we get layoffs. As you just heard, CNE is planning to eliminate vital
workers here at Women & Infants, and they refuse time and time again to
explain why. For years, I have pushed for patient safety. I have raised alarms
about unsafe staffing levels that put mothers and newborns at risk. For this, I
have been targeted by CNE. I have been dealing with bullying, harassment,
intimidation, and attempts to entrap me over and over. I am in the throes of an
arbitration fight for speaking the truth about what happens behind these walls.
This is how they try to control us, but I’m not backing down, not when my
patients need us, and not when my coworkers are being silenced.
“Meanwhile, CNE proudly announces record profits. If money
isn’t the issue, why are they laying off essential workers? This behavior is
not new. It’s a pattern, and we are done accepting it. In November 2024, I
joined hundreds of frontline staff to authorize an unfair labor practice strike
here at Women’s and Infants’ Hospital for these reasons.
“Let me be clear: We do not take striking lightly. We love
our work. We care deeply about our patients. We want to be at the bedside
serving our patients and serving our community. But when our jobs are
constantly under threat and we’re forced to live paycheck to paycheck, when
we’re disrespected repeatedly, enough is enough. Do you hear us, CNE? We are
here. We’ll not be bullied. We will not be silenced.”
Care New England workers across the health system demand
that upper management stop its illegal, anti-union behavior and work instead in
good faith to settle and honor workers’ contracts so they can return to
focusing on providing the quality of care Rhode Island patients need and
deserve.
“We’re going to make sure they value us and they value
patient care because that’s what we do,” said Ben Degnan, a mental
health worker at Butler Hospital for 23 years who emceed the press conference.
“Many members of the faith community have come down to our picket line to
support us. This fight has been very difficult, and having the faith to do
what’s right, persevere, and get what we deserve and need for us and our
patients is hard sometimes. There are moments of doubt and fear, especially
when Care New England actively tries to scare us and make us feel doubtful. The
support from the faith community has been essential to keeping us strong and
allowing us to fight for what we know is right.”
Jeremy Langill, executive minister for the Rhode
Island State Council of Churches, said he was honored to stand in
solidarity with the striking workers.
“Scripture reserves its harshest judgment for the wealthy,”
said Langill. “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than
for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. We see this story appear
again in the story of the rich young ruler. Maybe some of you attended Sunday
school like I did for a few years. The rich young ruler comes to Jesus and
says, "I have followed every rule. I have lived a moral life. What else do
I need to get into the kingdom of heaven?" And Jesus tells him, "Give
it all up and follow me."
“But he can’t do it. He can’t let go of the things he has
defined his life. At the end of the day, the rich young ruler could not move
from his fear-based thinking, from the false sense of moral security that often
comes with the accumulation of wealth.
“The heart of the issue is this: Economic systems that are
rooted in inequity, exploitation, and oppression are antithetical to the
Christian witness. In the American context, this is difficult for some to hear.
Too many of us have confused what is moral with the accumulation of material
goods. Too many of us have fallen prey to the view that a person’s worth is
rooted only in productivity. And too many of us have come to reflexively accept
poverty as an unfortunate side effect of our economic structures. However, in
the American system, poverty is not a bug but a feature.
“The immoral accumulation of wealth at the expense of the
common good is precisely the kind of economic activity that Christian faith
condemns in a nation of plenty. How are we in such great need? Yet the moral
view is not merely righteous indignation, although that is certainly part of
what we ministers do. To put it in secular terms: True moral activity is the
process of moral transformation. It is the movement from fear-based thinking to
love-based thinking.
“There’s one more story you might recall from scripture. The
story of Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus is a tax collector, and he was despised by all of
his fellow people because not only did he collect taxes, he collected taxes on
behalf of the oppressive Roman Empire, and then he took a little off the top.
He heard that Jesus was coming into town, so he climbed a tree because he
couldn’t see.
“When he got up there, Jesus noticed him and said,
“Zacchaeus, get down. I'm coming to your house for dinner tonight.” We don't
know what happened in that conversation. But by the end of the night, what did
Zacchaeus do? Not only did he repent and return everything he had given, but he
gave extra on top.
“Friends, if anyone ever tells you that reparations are not
in scripture, they’re wrong.
“In religious terms, we might talk about the story of
Zacchaeus as a story of redemption. In secular terms, it is a story of moral
transformation. But however we conceive the story, it sets out a vision of what
we could be and of what we can become: A nation and a state where full-time
work receives full-time and just compensation. A nation and a state where all
its people are housed, fed, and clothed. A nation and a state transformed by
moral thinking that prioritizes the common good and embraces the values of
compassion, equity, and justice. This is the kind of nation, the kind of state,
that I want to be a part of. Together, let us make it a reality.”
“We do what we do to care for those less fortunate than us,”
said Ben Gegnan, before introducing State Representative David Morales. “What
we ask in return is to be valued properly so we can have a fair wage,
healthcare that we can afford, and maybe retire one day with dignity. These are
the things we’re looking for. Unfortunately, these are the things that Care New
England has demonstrated that they don’t think we deserve.”
“Be fair to those who care,” said Representative Morales.
“Such a simple message, yet it is one that our hospital system chooses to
ignore. For over 45 days, there has been a refusal from Care New England to
come to the table and negotiate in good faith with frontline workers at Butler
Hospital, the workers who keep our communities safe.
“When a working person is experiencing mental health
distress, where do they go? They go and see the frontline workers at Butler
Hospital. When a patient is hungry and in need of food, they go to the dietary
workers working at the stations. In other words, Butler Hospital does not
function without its essential frontline staff.
“We’ve seen the impact over the last several weeks. Certain
units have had to close. Scab workers cannot provide the quality care that
working people in our state should be entitled to. When you take into
consideration the fact that Care New England has seen an increase in public
funding state budget after state budget and record profits increase in
executive pay, instead of coming to the table and working with the staff to
figure out how we can improve patient care, they’ve decided to attack the staff
that makes that care possible in the first place.
“And they haven’t stopped there. Right here, at Women &
Infants, where a working family in our state goes to welcome new life, they
have chosen to attack our frontline staff. They have threatened them with
layoff notices, and in doing so, they have exposed themselves for what they
truly are. Care New England has shown us that their mission is to break the
union. Care New England has made it absolutely clear that they would much
rather lay off unionized staff, repost the positions as non-union, and refuse
to pay a living wage that a worker is entitled to.
“But it’s not going to happen. That’s why we’re here. That
is why, for the last 45-plus days, the frontline workers at Butler Hospital
have been unapologetic in their negotiations. That is why we have frontline
staff from Women & Infants who have the courage to come here and state for
the record the mistreatment they have experienced being here on the front
lines, because when we mistreat our staff, when there are staffing conditions
that are unsafe, that impacts patient care. Somewhere down the line, Care New
England forgot that their main function as a hospital within our healthcare
system is to provide care, not to prioritize profit.
“To all our workers here, I want you to know that the public
continues to be on your side. Legislators from all across the state continue to
stand with you. Today, alongside 30 other representatives from all across Rhode
Island, we are delivering a letter to Women & Infants’ management decrying
their act of trying to lay off our frontline unionized staff because together
we are sending a clear message to Care New England: You will not break the
union in Rhode Island. We stand with our workers. And stand by a very basic
message: Be fair to those who care.”
“This is the fight we’re in right now,” said Ben Degnan,
finishing the press conference. “We want Care New England to know that this
fight will continue because this is the right fight. We are on the right side,
and the sooner Care New England recognizes that, the sooner we can get back to
work, doing what we do best: taking care of the most vulnerable people in our
communities.
“To get that done, Care New England, you must sign the
contract that has been in front of you for two weeks. Once you sign it, we will
be back to work by the weekend.
“I will leave you all with this: From what we’ve talked
about today, it’s pretty clear we don’t have a choice. We must win, and we will
win. As soon as Care New England realizes that we have already won, we can move
forward and start taking care of our patients again with dignity and respect.”
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