Worker Rights , , ,

Baltimore Catholic Nurses Picket Bishops for Fair Contract

Unionized nurses at Ascension St. Agnes Hospital stand together at a rally held in downtown Baltimore on Nov. 12, 2024, holding signs that say, "Ascension! Put patients before profits!" Photo by Maximillian Alvarez.

From The Real News Podcast (Spotify link)

On Nov. 12, unionized nurses at Ascension St. Agnes Hospital in Baltimore held a rally in front of the Marriott Hotel downtown, where the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) was holding a meeting. St. Agnes nurses rallied with supporters from around the city, and they were even joined by fellow Ascension nurses who traveled from Wichita, Kansas, and Austin, Texas.

According to a press release from National Nurses Organizing Committee / National Nurses United (NNOC-NNU), the purpose of the rally was to “highlight how Ascension has failed to follow USCCB directives to Catholic health care organizations to both serve and advocate for patients ‘at the margins of society’ and ‘treat its employees respectfully and justly.’… Baltimore nurses have been in negotiations since Feb. 2024, following a successful union election in November 2023. Ascension has failed to bargain in good faith with Saint Agnes nurses on language that would improve safe staffing and protect patients from cuts to services, lawsuits for billing disputes, and surprise billing or excess charges.” In this on-the-ground episode, you’ll hear speeches and chants from the Nov. 12 rally, and we speak with Gideon Eziama, a registered nurse with over 20 years of experience who has worked at Ascension St. Agnes for the last six years, and Lisa Watson, a registered nurse at Ascension Via Christi St. Francis Hospital in Wichita, who traveled to Baltimore to stand in solidarity with her coworkers at Ascension St. Agnes.

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Studio Production: Max Alvarez
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Transcript

The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.

Crowd Chants:

What do we want? Safe staffing! When do we want it? Now! What do we want? Safe staffing! When do we want it? Now! What do we want? Safe staffing! When do we want it? Now!

Maximillian Alvarez:

Alright. Welcome everyone to another episode of Working People, a podcast about the lives, jobs, dreams, and struggles of the working class today. Brought to you in partnership within these Times Magazine and the Real News Network produced by Jules Taylor and made possible by the support of listeners like You Working People is a proud member of the Labor Radio Podcast network. If you’re hungry for more worker and labor focus shows like ours, follow the link in the show notes and go check out the other great shows in our network and please support the work that we’re doing here at Working People because we can’t keep going without you. Share our episodes with your coworkers, your friends and family members. Leave positive reviews of the show on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, which helps people find the show and reach out to us if you have recommendations for folks you’d like us to talk to or stories you’d like us to investigate and please support the work we do at The Real News Network by going to the real news.com/donate, especially if you want to see more reporting from the front lines of struggle around the US and across the world.

My name is Maximillian Alvarez and we’ve got another important on the ground episode for y’all today. As you guys know, back in July, we published an episode in which I reported on the ground from a rally that was held by unionized nurses at Ascension St. Agnes Hospital here in Baltimore. The rally was held outside the hospital in an effort to raise awareness of the union’s fight, to secure a first contract, and to show management that they’re not backing down from their core demands for safe staffing levels and an operational model that puts patients and patient care first. Now, in that episode, you heard Chance and sounds from the picket line, and you heard me interviewing Nikki Horvat, a registered nurse in the neonatal intensive care unit at Ascension St. Agnes, and a member of the bargaining team. Today’s episode is an important follow-up report on that struggle, and it’s a struggle that doesn’t just concern nurses at Ascension St.

Agnes Hospital in Baltimore, but healthcare workers across the Ascension network as the National Nurses Organizing Committee slash National Nurses United has stated the Catholic Hospital system is one of the largest in the country with 140 hospitals in 19 states, and also one of the wealthiest with cash reserves, an investment company and a private equity operation worth billions of dollars. And because of its nonprofit status is exempt from paying federal taxes. So last week on November 12th, Baltimore nurses and their supporters, which included fellow Ascension nurses who had traveled from Wichita, Kansas, and even as far as Austin, Texas, held a rally near the inner harbor downtown in front of the Marriott Hotel where the US Conference of Catholic Bishops or the U-S-C-C-B was holding a meeting according to a press release from the union. The purpose of the rally was to quote, highlight how Ascension has failed to follow us CCB directives to Catholic healthcare organizations, to both serve and advocate for patients at the margins of society and treat its employees respectfully and justly.

As a proud Catholic, I’m deeply saddened to see Ascension’s mission disintegrate. In the years I’ve worked at St. Agnes Hospital, said Melissa Rou, a registered nurse in the intensive care unit and member of the bargaining team. The church teaches that all human beings should be treated with dignity, but at our hospital we see indignity on a daily, even hourly basis with rampant unsafe staffing and workplace violence due to ascension’s relentless pursuit of profits. And as the press release continues, Baltimore nurses have been in negotiations since February of 2024. Following a successful union election in November of 2023, Ascension has failed to bargain in good faith with St. Agnes nurses on language that would improve safe staffing and protect patients from cuts to services, lawsuits for billing disputes and surprise billing or excess charges. So on the morning of November 12th, I went down to the rally and I spoke to some of the workers there about what they’re fighting, how that fight is going, and how things have developed since the last action that we reported on back in the summer. I got to speak with Gideon Isama, a registered nurse with over 20 years of experience and who has worked at Ascension St. Agnes in Baltimore for the last six years. I also spoke with Lisa Watson, a registered nurse at Ascension via Christie St. Francis Hospital in Wichita who traveled all the way to Baltimore to stand in solidarity with her coworkers at Ascension St. Agnes. Take a listen.

Bradley Van Waus:

What do we want? What we want it. Thank you, Gideon. Thank you to all of our community allies here today for the Catholic Labor Network. Thank you to the city council President elect. It’s a great day here in Baltimore. Good morning, Ascension Nurses. So my name is Bradley Vanis and I’m the Ascension director and it’s so great here to have nurses from Wichita, Austin and Vol are from our four Ascension hospitals and Washington Hospital Center altogether today. So today we’re calling on the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops, the highest authority of the Catholic church in the United States to hold ascension accountable for their state and mission. They are an arm of the Catholic church and the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops needs to exercise their authority over them. Today the bishops are discussing a text called Dignity Us in Pita, highlighting the indispensable nature of the dignity of the human person. How do we feel as such a health has done in this department?

Does Ascension Health treat patients with dignity when they short staff their hospitals? No. No. Do they treat human life with dignity when Asension closes labor and delivery unit than inner cities at rate higher than any other hospital corporation? No. Does Ascension help treat its workers? Its nurses with any shred of dignity? No. Do they treat you with dignity when you miss your meal breaks? No. Do they treat you with dignity when their electronic medical record goes down and they still expect you to work? No. And did they treat nurses in Austin or Wichita with any dignity or they force you to swipe twice to get what you deserve? No.

Say Agnes nurses. Is there a lack of movement at the bargaining table making you feel dignified? Yes. No, no, no, no. They’re not making the field. So Ascension likes to hide behind the veil of Catholicism. They like to throw around the word ministry even though they run a venture capital operation worth billions. That would make some folks in Silicon Valley quite jealous. But nurses of patients alike within Ascension hospitals know the truth. Catholic social teaching is very clear about the dignity of the rights of workers, including the right to organize even within Catholic health there. Ascension should be setting the standard for how hospitals should treat workers and patients, but they see that 10 are lowering that standard. Nurses, you are the moral compass of this hospital corporation. Are we going to let them abandon their mission for profit? No. Are we going to make sure that nurses and patients are treated fairly? Yes, absolutely. We know one thing here. When we fight, we win. And our fight is one of moral imperative. We’re pulling the veil out over a CI’s greeds. We can’t stop until we win what we deserve. When we fight, we win. We fight, we win, we fight, we win.

Fr. Sinclair Oubre:

Now the leadership has to listen and act and give you a fair contract. It is by far, far too long. Now you deserve this contract. You deserve to walk back into that hospital with the security, the staffing, the pay, and the care and concern you deserve as sisters and brothers, as siblings united in the workforce as human beings. So we’ll be with you every step of the way. We’ll continue to call on bishops to come down and listen to your workers and listen to the voice of justice. They know that you’re a new and unsettling force. That unsettling will lead to something. I like to think it’ll lead to victory. It may not look like it now, but trust one another and trust in the movement you are building. And Baltimore deserves to give you all not just a huge amount of thanks, but also deserves.

We need to also take our obligation to walk with you and ensure that if retaliation takes place, we will be there. We will be there to call it out and to call this hospital administration to change their ways. They are not acting in a holy way. They’re not acting in a just way we’ll be. And we’ll be with you every the way. Who’s got this power? Jesus power. What kind of power? Union power. Word and power. Moses Power. Jesus Power. Catholic power. Church. Power. Justice, power. Keep it on. Keep fighting. You are going to win. And we will love to celebrate that when that happens on a day very soon. God bless you all and make peace. Speak on you, your families, your workplace, and especially the people you bring. Healthcare, your arts, your skills as healthcare providers. God bless

Crowd Chants:

Who got the power? We got the power! What kind of power? Union power!

Gideon Eziama:

My name is Gideon Eziama. I work at Ascension S in Baltimore. I’ve been announced there for almost six years now. I started working in 2019, June past June again to six years, but I’ve been in nurse for 24 years now and I worked almost different hospitals, butch union and non hospitals.

Maximillian Alvarez:

Well, Gideon, thank you so much for chatting with me today. I really appreciate it, man. We are standing here in the inner harbor in downtown Baltimore, out in front of the Marriott Hotel. Y’all just held a rally here and we were actually there with y’all at St. Agnes Ascension Hospital here in Baltimore when you and your fellow coworkers were demonstrating in the summer, and that was about six months into the bargaining campaign after you guys successfully unionized. So I was wondering if we could just catch listeners up on what’s been happening since that action that took place in the summer and now

Gideon Eziama:

Actually during that summertime, we have already given them by then among the beginning team. By then we have given them everything they needed from our own union side. Since then, the management side have been stolen. Whatever we have given them. That’s why we came here because the bishops of USA are having conference. So we can energize them to give them a call to facilitate and move fast so that whatever we’re looking for, so they could fasten up the contract and we can get a fair contract for the union.

Maximillian Alvarez:

And can you remind listeners a bit about what you guys are fighting for in that contract? I know that we heard chance about safe staffing levels, right? The union has strongly pushed for patient first like policies. So can you just tell listeners a bit about the key areas that you’re fighting for in this contract?

Gideon Eziama:

The key area actually the first one is the first self staffing. Self staffing is the key. When you have a safe staffing, have less what I call the outcome of that hospital will be great. When you have a safe staffing, the input, the safety of the patient and the safety of the employees, both nurses, everything but the doctors and everything is less. But when you have no safe staffing, everything becomes risk. When the patient is not well treated, the family becomes an issue. So that’s what we’re looking for. The first thing we’re looking, and that’s what we’re looking for is self staffing. Any other thing follows. But the first thing is just self staffing. Yes.

Maximillian Alvarez:

And you’ve been, you said working in healthcare for over 20 years, 24 years. 24 years. I’m wondering if you can put this struggle into perspective as someone who has worked in healthcare while healthcare in this country has changed since the time I was born. So can you tell listeners a bit about what you have seen change in the healthcare industry from a worker’s perspective in your 24 years working here?

Gideon Eziama:

As I said, I’ve been working in the healthcare department for 24 years. More than that. When we were working there, it used to be patient care. Now, Ascension as an example. Patient is normal patient. Patient becomes a commodity. It’s replaced. It’s like when you go to a shopping center, you go to inside the, let’s say you go to Walmart. When a commodity is taken out of shed, something else is place. That’s what it’s always productivity. That’s what they’re looking for. They’re always talking about less product, less productivity, more productivity. So it’s not more about how many patients, what is the outcome of the patient we are taking care of. It’s always patient is treated as being a commodity. So when we say safe staffing, that’s what we’re looking for so that the patient will not be treated as commodity. So we’ll be treated as a patient and being taken care of.

Maximillian Alvarez:

And given this sort of larger change in the industry that has been happening at private healthcare companies, but also not profit healthcare, this sort of industry wide shift towards understaffing, piling more work onto fewer workers, treating patients like commodities and getting them in and out as quickly as you can, what does that translate to for you on a day-to-day level? How does that change your working conditions?

Gideon Eziama:

I’m giving you as example of ascension. It becomes a profitable, they call it profitable environment. They always talk about the profits. He can’t believe how much the ascension is sipping in up, how much they’re making millions, billions. If you read articles, if you can go to articles, check Wall Street, you check ascension, see how much they’re making. And it’s not something I can start to explain here. It’s more in detail on this. So when they treat patient as a commodity, so what they’re looking is for what is the profit we’re making? It’s no more about how many patients are taking care of the outcome of the patient. What is, it’s always like the productivity. What is the profit, what is this, what is, it becomes a profit making ventures as of now. That’s what it is.

Maximillian Alvarez:

And can you tell folks out here listening in and around the city of Baltimore, I guess where things stand now in your contract fight and what folks listening to this can do to stand in solidarity with y’all?

Gideon Eziama:

When we study Union Ascension hire is a law firm. The law firm, they specialize in Boston, the union, and they kept this firm in our contract negotiation. And this law firm doesn’t care about negotiation. All they care is to store everything. So they will keep making their money and they’re making millions. So essentially Steve giving them millions because they know they have access. Instead of spending that million to the nurses and to the patient they’re taking care of. No, they’re just giving it to the lawyers and spending their money wrongly. That’s what it is.

Maximillian Alvarez:

And for folks listening to this, is there something they can do to support the union to make their voices heard to the hospital?

Gideon Eziama:

Yes. All we’re asking for is a fair contract. When we have a fair contract, we have a safe staffing. So anybody that can come over, what are we doing? We’re not getting, I worked last night and I’m working this night again, I haven’t got my sleep. I’m doing this. I’m not getting paid for it. Yes, we are all here, cold chilling. We did this, we’ve been doing it for almost a year now, getting to make sure that we have what we call self staffing and our patient is taken care of. That’s what we’re looking for. We’re not looking for something else. That’s what it is. So people that will see when they see us, they think that’s what it is. When I became a nurse, I became a nurse to take care of the patient. And when my patient is not taken care of, when the management ascension is staffing to make sure the gain is coming into them, not the welfare or the wellbeing of the patient we are taking care of, it gets meall. It looks like he cry by the bedside. So that’s what we’re crying for. Give us self stopping so we can take care of our patients. That’s what we’re looking for.

Lisa Watson:

My name is Lisa Watson and I’m a nurse at Ascension St. Francis in Wichita, Kansas for 19 years.

Maximillian Alvarez:

Well Lisa, thank you so much for talking to me today. We are standing here on the inner harbor of downtown Baltimore, and you’re a long way from home, but you came out here to stand in solidarity with your fellow healthcare workers. I was wondering if we could first just start by having you tell us a little bit about why we’re here and what brought you out here to Baltimore today.

Lisa Watson:

So I am here to stand shoulder to shoulder with my union brothers and sisters. These nurses have been met with terrible acts from ascension of union busting and instead of taking this money that they have for their union busting and pouring it into their patients, that’s why we’re here. It’s very unfortunate that patients are not put over profits in a Catholic institution. They have all of these values and this mission that they boast on TV and what is happening inside these walls is the exact opposite of that.

Maximillian Alvarez:

Can you tell us a little bit about what this looks like over there in Wichita? Are y’all dealing with the same issues that workers here in Baltimore are raising?

Lisa Watson:

So Ascension nationwide has been cutting staff to maximize their profits. Actually, there was a New York Times report a few years ago about how they do this all over the country. So what they’re doing here has definitely been happening everywhere. The nurses in Wichita and Austin have contracts. So we are able to push back and exercise our federal given rights not only to unionize, but to make things better for our patients. This has never been about money. This has been about being advocates for our patients. And so we could do that a lot better with a union contract. Baltimore nurses have put their contract on the table, they have given all their proposals, but Ascension refuses to bargain with them and are dragging their feet.

Maximillian Alvarez:

I’m wondering if you could help our listeners put this into historical perspective as someone who’s been working in the industry for years. I think for a second the country’s attention was focused on the crisis in healthcare. During the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, folks realized that how understaffed, overworked, overburdened our healthcare workers are, how burnt out they are. But I don’t think folks understand how that has been building over time. How have you seen that change take hold over the course of your time working as a healthcare worker?

Lisa Watson:

So my unit was covid for a couple of years and it was the hardest years of my life. But when Covid was over, the hospitals staffed us like it was still Covid, like it was still a pandemic. We are not in a pandemic. There are more nurses now with licenses in the United States than there ever have been. There is not a nursing shortage. There’s a shortage of nurses who want to work under these conditions. It is unfortunate that Ascension continues to put us in these situations. These are our licenses, these are patients’ lives and we have got to put them first. So I work in an intensive care unit and we are supposed to have two patients. We have three patients a lot of the time, and that’s what’s happening in Baltimore too. We cannot be in there to notice those subtle changes in our patients. We have got to be at bedside to take good care of our patients and we cannot be when Ascension staffs us the way that they have been staffing us there. Staffing grids are all about maximizing profits and keeping less people at the bedside, which does not align with their values of the dignity of life.

Maximillian Alvarez:

How does it change struggle when you’re going up against a explicitly Catholic kind of institution? I guess because one of the things we’ve been hearing from events like these is workers challenging ascension to live up to its own stated principles. So what does the struggle look like within the largest Catholic healthcare network in the country? How is that a positive and a negative for this struggle here?

Lisa Watson:

The struggle with Ascension is really disheartening. As a Catholic, I believe that every life is important and I want to take care of my patients. I want to go home. At the end of the day, I want to lay my head on my pillow and I want to know that I did right by them. And I can’t do that every day at Ascension. These nurses in Baltimore can’t do that every day. So it is very sad that the largest Catholic, not-for-profit organization hides behind their Catholicism and does the exact opposite. That’s why I’m wearing a shirt that says Act Catholic. I have worn this to numerous events because Ascension is not acting Catholic. It is degrading the faith. It is absolutely against every moral teaching of the church. Even the Pope has said that he believes in unionization and the right for workers to stand up for themselves and to have a livable wage. And ascension is doing the exact opposite. So they’re hiding behind their Catholicism. And that should make every Catholic mad. It should make every Catholic question what Ascension is doing and stand behind these nurses and especially these bishops. I mean, they’re here having a convention and they should be looking at the big picture. This is a national convention, this is a national corporation. This is a national problem. And they should see problems with what’s going on at Ascension.

Maximillian Alvarez:

And just one more question. I know I got to let you go. You’ve had a long week, you’ve traveled far and wide. I want to let you get some rest, but I want to just kind of pick up on that last point. Like you said, this is a national issue and it’s going to take national and international worker solidarity to confront, and you physically standing here are living proof of that. Could you just talk a little bit about the importance of showing up for each other? I mean, maybe not everyone has the ability to travel across states for something like this, but what can folks out there do to stand in stronger solidarity with their fellow workers? And why is it important at this moment right now?

Lisa Watson:

So we are taught to stand up for our friends and to be there when people are sick and to do the right thing. So we need to do it here too. We have got to stand up for other unions and for people who are trying to unionize. We have federal rights and we will exercise our federal rights. I will be here every day exercising my federal rights. My husband is union. I understand the importance of unions. I understand how things are supposed to work and if we have federal protections, we should not let a hospital stand against us. We should definitely be standing up every day. So we have to stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters. We’ve got to show up. We’ve got to do the right thing every day. We got to do the right thing even when nobody’s watching. And so I am very proud to be here standing up for my coworkers, for my brothers and sisters.

And if we don’t do this, everybody loses. All of these patients lose across the United States. We have got to stand up every single day everywhere because we will all need healthcare at one point in time and people should not be dying in the hospital because things are missed. It’s very unfortunate. We are here to show solidarity with St. Agnes and let the bishops know that the Ascension Hospital change is making a mockery of the church doctrine in Baltimore, I have witnessed firsthand how Ascension focuses on profits over patient care. I have experienced their disrespect for nurses. When we advocate for our patients and ourselves, we have to stand together to make a difference. We want a strong contract in Kansas and we use this as a tool to improve our conditions at the hospital. And that is what we want for the St. Agnes nurses

Crowd Chants:

Who got the power? We got the power! What kind of power? Union power! Who got the power? We got the power! What kind of power? Union power!

Maximillian Alvarez:

Alright gang. That’s going to wrap things up for us this week. As always, I want thank you all for listening and I want to thank you for caring. We’ll see y’all back here next week for another episode of Working People. And if you can’t wait that long, then go explore all the great work that we’re doing at The Real News Network Daily. We’re doing grassroots journalism that lifts up the voices and stories from the front lines of struggle. Sign up for the Real News newsletter so you’d never miss a story. And help us do more work like this by going to the real news.com/donate and becoming a supporter today. I promise you it really makes a difference. I’m Maximilian Alvarez. Take care of yourselves. Take care of each other. Solidarity forever.

This article first appeared on The Real News Network and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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