a Workforce in distress we begin with another strike authorization by Health Care employees in the state who say they've reached a Breaking Point this time it's nearly 1800 nurses at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital the overwhelming majority 96 percent voting Monday night to reject a contract settlement with the New Brunswick facility after three months of failed negotiations lack of Staffing is the top issue according to union leaders but they're also seeking better pay retirement benefits and caps on insurance costs in a statement the hospital says it's extremely disappointed with the vote and has the utmost respect for the nursing staff who are now working with an expired contract the hospital has been given a 10-day notice starting today allowing both sides to continue negotiating but can they strike a deal I'm joined by Judy danella a registered nurse at the hospital and president of the United Steel Workers Local 4200 representing the nurses Judy welcome to the show good to have you how dire of a situation is this that the majority of your nursing staff has felt the need to authorize a potential strike here I think it sends a pretty strong message that the nurses whether they be nurses that have been at the hospital a long time or nurses that are new to the hospital support safe Staffing um the hospital has added positions over the past year but the Staffing levels are not where they should be on a daily basis some days you come in the Staffing is good some days you come in the Staffing is not good cannot have a one to three ratio on icus on the floors one to six so when you talk about safe Staffing it's not just numbers it's also the level of uh you know institutional knowledge and what have you I mean the hospital has says that in response to that it's hired 100 registered nurses along with other you know Tech uh and and medical positions there is that not to the experience level that you all would like and need to see I think what it comes down to is yes Robert Wood Johnson New Brunswick it is a level one Trauma Center I mean I've worked there almost 30 years it has been my whole career minus two years when I first started nursing I do love my job I do love the hospital it's just when you go in there and the ratios safe ratios are not done on a daily basis it's not fair and we want to make sure that there's enough nurses with enough knowledge to take care of that our hospital is still staffed with 120 Travelers so that does show we need staff still uh let me get you to respond to this in a statement today the hospital said that the offer it had given uh the the union the pay is 14 higher than the average pay for comparable hospitals that you all are among the highest paid among your peers in the state what do you say to that I say to that that yes the the maybe one to five years was given a considerable raise um in the beginning of March so they brought them up maybe 14 they had to every other Hospital in New Jersey had brought their members up to that so they were just bringing them up to what facilities down the road have brought them up to um we did not get 14 in the 10-year and above level so that is not something that is accurate uh Judy lastly what would a strike look like both for you someone who's been on the job for many years and as you said very dedicated to the work and also for the patients you know the pa the patients like I say you know The Travelers they come in if you have Travelers during a strike basically they're there for the money um that's totally what they're there for I just think that we need to make safe Staffing I think we need to make our contract a strong contract so that it goes on for the life of of the hospital Travelers are not there they're not people that are going to give their heart and soul like we do they're just temporary employees and we have to have Staffing that's safe every day every year every minute Travelers of course referring to traveling nurses that we've seen an influx of uh since the kova 19 pandemic okay Judy danella thank you so much for your time thank you so much thanks [Music] [Music]