Striking workers leave big shoes to fill at three hospitals
UPW members begin first day on picket lines
WAILUKU — Without the help of nurses’ aides, respiratory therapists, maintenance workers and custodial staff, registered nurse Angela Weldon says she and other nurses are worried about what they will face in the coming days at Maui Memorial Medical Center with hundreds of her co-workers on strike.
“I have to work tomorrow without them and I’m scared. It’s not just nurses’ aides, it’s a lot of people on strike. This is a big deal,” Weldon said Wednesday morning near one of the United Public Workers union picket lines at the hospital. She was one of several nurses who came to show their support for the UPW workers.
Weldon, who has worked at the hospital for 17 years, wondered if her duties will now include cleaning rooms and handling maintenance issues on top of taking care of her patients.
“I’m scared that I’m going to have to do more than I can do,” Weldon added during a phone interview Wednesday afternoon.
Wednesday was the first day of the UPW strike of nearly 500 employees at Maui Memorial Medical Center, Kula Hospital, Lanai Community Hospital and Maui Memorial Medical Center’s Outpatient Clinic, which are all operated by Maui Health.
Housekeepers, cooks and other workers are also covered by the union. Members have been seeking to secure equal pay for some veteran workers who they say make less than new hires, stop the practice of some workers logging long shifts two to three days in a row and get loyalty or longevity pay for those who have been with the hospital prior to, during and after the transition of the three former quasi-public hospitals’ operations to Maui Health in July 2017.
After two days of member ratification meetings earlier this week, members voted to not accept a “last, best and final offer,” from Maui Health. Contract negotiations have gone on for nine months. Union spokesperson Maleko McDonnell said Wednesday there were no new negotiation dates on the books but the union was ready to meet again with Maui Health officials when they are ready.
He said there were no public issues that they saw at the picket lines and that everyone was respectful of the lines.
In a statement Wednesday afternoon, Maui Health said: “The health and safety of our employees, patients and providers remains a top priority. Safety measures have been put in place to ensure all entrances to our hospitals and facilities remain open and accessible for our employees and providers, our patients, and their visitors.”
Maui Health said those in need of emergency medical care should not be deterred by strike activities and all appointments and outpatient procedures will continue as scheduled.
Patients concerned with their scheduled appointments should contact their physician providers.
Maui Health reiterated that it has a contingency plan to reduce any potential disruption to patient care and overall operations, which includes additional staffing and a dedicated labor pool to assist in affected areas.
Maui Health’s Emergency Operations Center team meets multiple times a day to assess staffing needs and deploy additional resources where needed, the statement said.
Updates from Maui Health can be found at www.mauihealth.org/operations.
Maui Health did not directly answer questions on Wednesday about who was filling in for cooks, housekeepers, aides and other striking workers.
“We’re all irreplaceable,” said Leonard Rodrigues Jr., a general maintenance worker at the hospital.
“You can’t find us in a day,” he said in response to a question about who would replace him or his co-workers at the hospital during the strike.
In addition to the usual maintenance work, such as dealing with lighting and plumbing fixtures, the employees also ensure that equipment such as medical vacuum systems — which helps control the flow of gas and pressure in the hospital — are functioning.
“We have to make sure everything is working properly,” Rodrigues said while taking a break from the picket line on Wednesday. “We make sure the doctor has these tools to work.”
Rodrigues said there is always someone on-call for maintenance needs 24 hours a day.
Mary Quattrone, who brought her dog, Bumbo, to the picket line Wednesday, said she had a hard time sleeping Tuesday night and had to make “a hard moral decision” to strike.
“It hurts a lot,” said Quattrone, who is a scrub tech in the operating room and said she cares deeply for her patients. She described her position as the “surgeon’s right-hand man,” the one who hands the doctor the proper instruments at the right time. She also has her “eyes and ears everywhere in the operating room.”
The Wailuku resident also works as a valet on nights and weekends at the hospital to make ends meet.
“I know I pay the price for paradise,” said Quattrone, who is originally from Chicago and said she is making ends meet by herself.
“One paycheck for me doesn’t even cover rent,” she added, noting she falls a couple hundred dollars short.
Quattrone emphasized the value of health care workers. While she said people may pay lots of money to watch professional sports and professional athletes get paid millions, “we are legit saving people’s lives, giving them their lives back. We should be able to sustain our lives.”
Hospital aide Miriam Baraoidan said she and other aides have been working hard and are assigned more patients than they are normally used to.
Because of the short-staffing, the aides get behind on their work as well.
Baraoidan is one of the
UPW workers who is making less than her counterparts who have less seniority than she has.
“For me, it’s not fair,” she said.