We should do all we can for our healthcare heroes while also living within tight budgets, writes former Rep. Ernest Istook. Union leaders should become a part of the solution — and not create public health crises to advance union-first agendas.
Theirs is the Florence Nightingale Pledge, their counterpart to the Hippocratic Oath, vowing to put their patients above themselves. Yet labor leaders are now pushing many nurses to make a difficult choice.
The strike cost the hospital over $40 million , plus the hospital paid $4 million for extra police protection during the chaos. But just last month, the same Massachusetts hospital and its nurses union got bogged down again by new disputes, demonstrating the endless nature of the union-employer conflict.
This year, nurses’ strikes that occurred in May included Newark, New Jersey; multiple Hawaii hospitals; and California, while strike votes are pending elsewhere in states such as Oregon. Another 7,000-nurse strike was narrowly avoided in Los Angeles, and the same happened in multiple states. Nurses are debating what they should do to balance their noble commitments with the legitimate needs of their own families and with the emotional and physical strains of nursing. To many, it's not just a job — it's a calling.