MARQUETTE, MI – Nurses hit the picket lines outside the Upper Peninsula’s largest hospital early Thursday morning.
They say they’re striking over patient safety issues – including 12 to 16-hour shifts in some areas of the hospital that nurses say are overworking the staff and putting critical patient care at risk.
The 48-hour strike is to end on Saturday morning, according to The Keweenaw Report.
The last round of negotiations between the Michigan Nurses Association and the UP Health System-Marquette ended Wednesday night with no agreement.
The hospital has said temporary nurses will fill in for the striking staff, according to media reports.
I had worked at a large NYC Hospital and we voted to strike due to no contract and management was attempting to chip away at our benefits. Hospital administration was quite arrogant before we went on strike. They threatened to replace the striking nurses with traveler/per-diem’s. We knew that was impossible to replace 700 nurses. The strike lasted one day!
Strength in numbers!! United we stand!!
I work in a nursing h
ome we are understaff and under paid I support you all the way
12s are a rough shift then especially if you are on call immediately after. I worked like for 8 years. There were many of shifts that turned into 16-18 and 20 hours due to being on call. It was just expected despite the lack of sleep.
12 hr shifts are not for everyone.
I support these nurses 100%!!
12s are hard, at 16hrs I am a menace to my patient!