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US nurses strike over Ebola protection concerns

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Thousands of nurses across the US staged protests Tuesday and Wednesday calling for increased Ebola preparations and general safety practices.

The 2-day strike began Nov. 11 with California nurses demonstrating against cuts in patient services and safe-patient handling practices. Protests reached a national level the next day when nurses from 14 other states and the District of Columbia turned their attention to the current Ebola virus outbreak, according to a press release from the strike’s organizer, National Nurses United (NNU).

“The lack of concern for nurses and patients in a world where corporations have taken over our community health care has been magnified during this deadly Ebola crisis,” Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of NNU, said in a press release. “We know from years of experience that these hospitals will meet the cheapest standards, not the most effective precautions. And now we are done talking and ready to act.”

In a statement released on Nov. 11, NNU said it expected 100,000 registered nurses to join the demonstrations, which included a vigil outside the White House and a rally outside the Federal Building in Oakland, Calif. The organization said its demands include additional personal protective equipment, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health-approved air purifying respirators, and additional training for registered nurses who might encounter Ebola patients.

Kaiser Permanente, the California-based health care company whose hospitals and clinics were the most affected by the strike, said it was “perplexed” by the union’s decision to strike.

“The fact is, the different reasons the union leaders have given for calling a walk out are not supported by the facts — either in our medical centers or at the bargaining table,” company officials wrote in a statement released on Nov. 11. “We have responded to all of the union’s negotiating proposals, and we look forward to more bargaining sessions. We are absolutely committed to keeping Kaiser Permanente the best place for our nurses to work, and we have assured them of that commitment.”