Memorial Medical Center Receives Strike Notice

Long Beach Medical Center and Miller Children’s & Women’s Hospital announced last week that the California Nurses Association (CNA) has formally notified the hospitals of the union’s intention to strike beginning on Thursday, May 22. CNA represents more than 2,000 registered nurses (RNs) at the hospitals.

The union delivered the strike notice following 15 bargaining sessions with representatives of the hospitals, and without either party having declared an impasse in negotiations. By comparison, in the last two contract negotiations between the hospitals and CAN – both of which successfully concluded in an agreement without a strike being called – the negotiating teams held 42 and 21 bargaining sessions, respectively, before an agreement was reached.

“Long Beach residents can be assured that the union’s decision to strike will in no way compromise our hospitals’ ability or commitment to serve the essential health care needs of the community. We will continue to provide emergency and critical care services. We will work to avoid scheduling elective procedures during the strike to allow staff to focus on essential services and minimize disruption to care,” said Stephanie Garcia, vice president, operations.

In a good faith effort to continue negotiations, the hospitals offered to schedule additional bargaining sessions with union representatives in May and June to work towards an agreement. The hospitals’ offer was conditioned upon the union withdrawing its strike notice and agreeing not to issue another strike notice prior to the conclusion of these sessions. Unfortunately, the union’s leaders declined to withdraw the strike notice.

“We are extremely disappointed that union leadership has prematurely chosen this course of action. The hospitals have negotiated in good faith with union representatives for the last several months, and we remain committed to doing so going forward. We continue to believe that the best way for our dedicated nurses to reach a fair, financially responsible contract is at the bargaining table and not on the picket line. We look forward to resuming negotiations with the union after the strike concludes,” said Garcia.

The hospitals will proactively reach out to patients to reschedule elective procedures outside of the anticipated strike period between May 22 and May 26. The hospitals are working with their trusted nursing agency partner to provide highly qualified and experienced replacement nurses to staff their emergency department and otherwise to provide critical care to patients during the strike.