STRIKE: Hundreds of Nurses and Other Healthcare Workers to Strike on Maui and Lanai 11/4 – 11/6
Union representing most of the staff at Maui’s only acute care hospital delivered 10-day notice of Unfair Labor Practice strike during bargaining today
News release from United Nurses and Health Care Employees of Hawaii Oct 24, 2024
MAUI – Most of the essential staff at Maui Memorial Medical Center in Wailuku, Maui; Kula Hospital; and Lanai Community Hospital will walk out for a three-day unfair labor practice strike beginning Monday morning, November 4 at 7 a.m. and ending when they return to work at 7 a.m. on Thursday morning, November 7.
RNs and essential healthcare workers are available for interviews about why they’re taking this step.
“The community’s been hurting ever since COVID. This year alone, because of those fires, rent has gone up on Maui about 40%. We’re losing staff left and right. Many people have moved off the island because they couldn’t afford to live here. We’re trying to make it so nurses and healthcare workers can afford to stay and care for our ohana,” said Matt Pelc, CT Tech and Chair of the United Nurses and Healthcare Employees of Hawaii (UNHCEH).
Kaiser Permanente, the gold standard for healthcare nationwide, manages Maui Health System, having taken it over from the state in 2017 along with promises to elevate care standards. Kaiser has not kept its promises to Maui and Lanai residents.
Kaiser Permanente also owns and runs clinics on Maui, and hospitals and clinics on other islands in Hawaii. The healthcare workers at Maui Memorial are covered by separate contracts from the other KP healthcare workers in Hawaii. Kaiser continues to operate Maui Health under different, lesser standards across the board: lower wages, benefits, and care standards, resulting in a less stable patient care environment, with high turnover and chronic staffing shortages.
Safe RN Staffing for California but not Maui and Lanai
Maui Health/Kaiser Permanente has steadfastly opposed the frontline caregivers’ most important patient care proposal: the very same safe RN-to-patient ratios that Kaiser agreed to in its contract covering RNs in California. The National Institutes of Health discovered that adding one patient to a nurse’s caseload raises the probability of patient mortality by 7%—dramatizing the importance of this proposal.
“What’s the difference between California and Maui? Why can’t we have equal standards of care?” said China Kapuras, a Hawaii native and military veteran who works at MMMC as Case Manager Specialist. “We want to provide the best medical care we can. I’ve had nurses tell me they feel like they need two of themselves. I’ve had patients who told me, ‘I love the care that I’m getting but the nurses are working so hard, with all these patients.”
The RN turnover rate at Maui Memorial is more than three times higher than that at Kaiser’s other clinics and hospitals in Hawaii: 13.86% vs. 4.2%—a tremendous cost to the hospital in patient safety and financial burden. Each percent change in RN turnover costs or saves the average hospital $262,500 per year.
“Nurses are getting burned out and overwhelmed due to staffing shortages,” said Napua Aloy, RN, NP. “We need to retain nurses to give better care.” Napua helps deliver babies in Maui Memorial’s Labor & Delivery unit. She was also born at MMMC. So was her husband, and all three of their children.
As a lifelong Maui native, Napua’s also an advocate for UNHCEH’s other top bargaining priority: a living wage for the lower-paid workers whose unsung contributions are essential from the moment a patient walks into the hospital until the moment they’re discharged: admitting clerks, receptionists, case managers, financial counselors, unit clerks and more.
“Most of them are from the island,” said Napua. “We’re fighting for them to stay, not to be priced out. Ohana, that aspect of aloha no matter who you encounter in the hospital—we want to maintain that.”
On average, a ward clerk at Maui Memorial makes 19.66% less than the same classification down the street at a Kaiser clinic. Receptionists and lab assistants make nearly 20% less and a clinical coordinator 17.09% less. Turnover rates among ancillary staff at MMMC are 16.19% vs. only 7.3% at Kaiser’s other Hawaii hospitals and clinics.
A June 2024 study by the Hawaiʻi State Rural Health Association, “Maui Together,” indicates that 39% of medical professionals are contemplating moving to the Mainland. Another 40% are considering a reduction in hours, and 35% are thinking about leaving medicine altogether.
Get background on contract negotiations, patient care standards, turnover rates and wage comparisons, and studies cited.
Unfair Labor Practices
MHS/Kaiser management have threatened Maui Memorial workers for protected union activities, have instituted an unlawfully punitive and overbroad social media policy, and surveilled workers—all unfair labor practices (ULPs) under the National Labor Relations Act, according to charges filed by the union with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
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United Nurses and Health Care Employees of Hawaii (UNCHEH) represents 900 employees of Maui Health System on Maui and Lanai, including registered nurses, social workers, physical and occupational therapists, speech/language pathologists, MRI, imaging, and mammography technicians, financial counselors, admitting clerks, receptionists, and many more. UNHCEH is a chapter of UNAC/UHCP.
United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals (UNAC/UHCP) represents more than 40,000 registered nurses and health care professionals in California and Hawaii, including optometrists; pharmacists; physical, occupational and speech therapists; case managers; nurse midwives; social workers; clinical lab scientists; physician assistants and nurse practitioners; hospital support and technical staff. UNAC/UHCP is affiliated with the National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO.
COVERAGE:
SA: Unionized Maui Memorial health care workers to hold 3-day strike | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
KITV: Hundreds of Maui and Lanai healthcare workers announce a 3-day strike | News | kitv.com
HNN: Hundreds of neighbor-island nurses, health care workers to hold 3-day strike