July 2, 2015
By LaborPress
With unionized nurses at Nathan Littauer Hospital in Gloversville, N.Y., threatening a strike after working 18 months without a raise, the hospital announced June 24 that it has made a deal to hire strikebreakers. It said it had arranged "late last year" with an unidentified company to "provide a full complement of highly experienced [nurses] to replace our employees if there ever were a strike.”
Tara Martin of the New York State Nurses Association, which represents the about 135 nurses at the hospital, said that shows "management is willing to spend an incredible amount of money to lock out our community nurses. This is money that could be used to provide adequate staffing." The nurses, whose contract expired in December 2013, voted to authorize a strike earlier this month. They also filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging that management illegally declared a bargaining impasse after they refused to accept non-negotiable demands such as ending defined-benefit pensions. Read more
