CRONA (the nurse’s union at Stanford) has been bargaining for their contract, which expired March 31, 2022. Please see below for the issues they have been bargaining for, including better staffing and mental health support, and the hospital’s response. After management failed to agree to a contract with these changes, on April 8, 2022, a majority of CRONA members (93%, or more than 4500 nurses) voted to authorize a strike, as a form of collective action to make their voice heard. If CRONA calls a strike, the hospital will have 10 days’ notice, as required by law. If CRONA were to call a strike, it would be the third time in CRONA’s history and the first In more than two decades. Please read on their website for more details: https://crona.org/negotiations-strikefaq/
Like you, the CRONA Board and the Negotiating Teams are committed to caring for our patients. We are not eager to strike. If management will agree to a contract that includes the wages, benefits, and working conditions we need to recruit and retain world-class Nurses and combat chronic understaffing, we will not need to strike. But in the long run, we feel more harm will be done to our patients if real progress is not made to address the issues on the table, including providing a competitive compensation and retiree medical benefits package; safe staffing provisions; addressing the current crisis in critical care units; and improved access to mental health care. We have tried to resolve these issues at the bargaining table. A collective action is the strongest statement we can make.
Update 4/13/2022: Hospital management continue to refuse to agree to contracts that will support staffing, mental health, and the sustainability of nursing careers. CRONA has called a strike which will begin on 4/25. Please read their press release and the recent news articles for more context.
- https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/apr/13/nurses-california-hospitals-prepare-strike
- https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/03/31/1088672446/a-nurses-death-raises-the-alarm-about-the-professions-mental-health-crisis
- https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/04/22/im-exhausted-why-stanford-nurses-are-preparing-to-strike-and-others-already-have/
