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Over 300 Hutchinson Hospital Service and Maintenance workers will vote August 10 on joining SEIU, the largest healthcare union in the country with over 1.4 million members, including doctors,
nurses, nurse aides, technicians and other healthcare workers, throughout the United States and Canada.
Although the hospital is running an anti-union campaign and asking for a chance to set things right, the majority of workers say that refrain is like "déjà vu all over again," as the hospital continually asks the workers to do more and more work with less and less support staff, promising they will look into it and come up with solutions.
Somehow, the solutions are never forthcoming as workers struggle to maintain high standards without the tool
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Anita Corkins
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s they need to do the job.
"Hutchinson Hospital management has made it clear; to gain the respect and
the voice we deserve on the job requires that we form a union," said Anita Corkins, who works in the fast-paced Supply, Processing and Distribution department of the hospital.
"The people who work there are the hospital's most valuable asset, yet we
have been told we are 'non-essential personnel' by management and we are treated as such. The problem doesn't just affect us; it affects the quality of care provided to our loved ones in this community.
"As the hospital adds doctors to its staff, increases surgeries and other
patient services, the already short-staffed support services are being stretched beyond the maximum with no relief in sight, despite years of promises from management."
Workers at the hospital say every day there are serious indications that the hospital is short-staffed,
such as patients spending the night in recliners in the Same Day Care clinic because there are no patient rooms available, patients waiting in the hallways for hours for placement, while not enough people
struggle behind the scenes to keep up with an impossible work load.
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Bonnie Chestnut
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Bonnie Chestnut, CNA on the psych ward with 16 years experience, describes having to
make no-win decisions because of short-staffing, such as whether to keep an eye on one patient who is wandering around unsteady on his feet who has already injured himself, or
following routine procedures of checking on her potential suicide patients every 15 minutes. Even when she asks directly what she should do, she gets no answer. It is up to her. She
says after a patient attacked and seriously beat an orderly a while back, that the hospital "staffed-up" for a couple of weeks, but then went right back to the inadequate staffing levels.
Carol Crotts, communications clerk with 13 years experience concludes, "We take pride in our jobs.
We give 100%. This is our hospital, our family's hospital, and our only community option. As we prepare a cart for surgery, or clean a patient room, or supply the nurses with everything they need to
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Carol Crotts
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provide care on their floor, or carry out doctor's orders, we are keenly aware that every aspect of patient care is affected by what we do."
As the announcement of the August 10 election date is made at the weekly
organizing meeting, which grows in attendance each week, cheers go up and hugs go around. They are looking forward to negotiating better working
conditions, wages and benefits that will stem the high turnover rate and improve life for their patients and themselves.
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