In light of the recent nursing strikes in New York and California, it’s time to dive into the surge in union activity. In January, two separate sizeable healthcare strikes began on the east and west coasts. In New York, the members of the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) began the largest nursing strike in NYC history on January 12, when about 15,000 nurses formed the picket line to call for better staffing, safety measures, and healthcare benefits. The strike involves nurses from Mount Sinai, Montefiore, and New York Presbyterian. On the other side of the country, over 31,000 nurses and healthcare workers at Kaiser Permanente started to strike on January 26 to demand higher wages and safer staffing levels. The participants include nurses, physician assistants, pharmacists, and other clinicians who are members of the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals (UNAC/UHCP). So, why is this happening? Why nurses strike Oftentimes, the issues that nurses are striking for have been the same for years. Higher wages, better working conditions, and patient safety are dynamic problems, and as the times change, so do the solutions for those problems. As cost of living rises, so does the demand for better compensation. As patient acuity worsens and workplace violence incidents increase, so must the solutions for safe staffing, which in turn is made more difficult by nursing shortages. Issues in healthcare are cyclical, and there is no perfect place to begin. googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display(“dfp-ad-hl_native1”); }); From a leadership perspective, strikes…
