MARQUETTE, MI-- Registered nurses from UPHS-Marquette are on a 48-hour strike.
For months the nurses have been saying the hospital needs better staffing levels and less mandated overtime, as patient welfare is suffering.
Scott Balko is President of the UPHS-Marquette RN Staff Council under the Michigan Nurses Association. He says some progress has been made in reaching a new contract, but not enough has been agreed upon so that they can bring it back to the union for ratification.
“You know, we’ve had a few things thrown out there that have been kind of offensive to us, and we feel we’ve made enough escalations to try to get them to move at the table and they haven’t,” he says. “So this is our big escalation, I guess you could say.”
The strike began at 7 a.m. and will last through Saturday morning at 7. Negotiations with the hospital Wednesday night ended early without an agreement.
Balko notes neither side really wants a strike, but the nurses feel they have to do something to better the situation.
“We truly need to do something to get more nurses in there and to kind of cut down on the overtime and the extra shifts and the mandation that’s been happening. The fight’s not just for us—it’s for our community and for the patients that we serve,” he says.
The nurses have been working without a contract since late July.
Note: Public Radio 90 reached out to UPHS-Marquette administration for a comment but has yet to hear back.
