Hawaii Nurses’ Association to picket at Straub Medical Center, highlighting various concerns

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - The Hawaii Nurses’ Association plans to picket at Straub Medical Center to highlight various concerns amid their fight for a better contract.

Nurses at Straub Medical Center said Friday they’ve rejected a final contract offer — with 96% voting “no” — because they say it fails to address patient safety concerns.

The Hawaii Nurses Association added the hospital’s offer did not address concerns with staffing, breaks and time off.

“Having the ability to get meal breaks along with sufficient staffing with experienced registered nurses is fundamental to quality patient care,” said Daniel Ross, president of the Hawai’i Nurses Association (HNA). “The correlation between staffing and patient safety is a major concern within the healthcare industry, but Straub’s best and final continues to ignore this elephant in the room.”

Meanwhile, Straub said its talks with the union have been “very productive.”

In a statement, Straub Medical Center’s Chief Operating Officer Travis Clegg said:

We greatly respect and value our nurses at Straub Medical Center. Our meetings with the Hawai’i Nurses Association to date have been very productive and we have reached more than 20 tentative agreements, including safety and staffing agreements. Straub is actively working to retain and build its nursing workforce through multiple recruitment programs. We offered a proposal to HNA that would make Straub nurses among the highest paid nurses in the state.

Clegg said Straub stands by their offer and are open to continuing discussions.

HNA said it requested more bargaining dates with the hospital. They added it hopes Straub will listen to their concerns and “bargain in good faith.”

The union plans to hold the informational picket the morning of Nov. 22.

This story will be updated.

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