Longmont United Hospital nurses gain support from Neguse and Peck in union efforts

Dozens of registered nurses, or RNs, and community members rallied in support of unionization efforts outside of Longmont United Hospital today.

“We are losing many exceptional nurses at Longmont (United Hospital) due to extremely unsafe staffing conditions across the hospital. Nearly a third of our RN staff has left since the beginning of July, many of whom have not been replaced. Our ER has been slammed and we have been forced to turn away patients. Our working conditions are unsustainable and extremely unsafe for our patients,” said LUH RN Kris Kloster in a statement ahead of the public event.

Facing staffing shortages and troubling conditions, such as a lack of equipment, low pay and exhaustive hours, exacerbated by the onset of COVID-19, RNs at LUH began the process of unionizing with National Nurses United, or NNU. 

The NNU was founded in 2009 and boasts more than 175,000 RN members across the country, the largest national union of nurses in the U.S.

According to the National Labor Relations Board, or NLRB, briefing on the union election from May, unions would typically perform a manual vote. Due to COVID-19 conditions and despite objections from Centura Health, NLRB determined a mail ballot election was warranted based on similar precedent. The mail ballot election for Longmont United’s nurses took place in June and July, but the outcome is still undetermined.

Speaking to the crowd, Kloster highlighted the struggles the staff has faced over the past several years. Kloster, an RN for 31 years and in the Intensive Care Unit at LUH for 21 years, said the changes started after Centura Health acquired LUH five years prior. 

Nursing staff, particularly in the ICU, have seen significant turnover leading to overworked staff caring for three to four ICU beds, double the industry standard of one or two patients per nurse, according to Kloster. Leading up to Thanksgiving, Kloster said she was on call 24 hours a day for 11 out of 16 days. Since the union election, Kloster said nearly a third of LUH’s nursing staff have left and most have not been replaced.

“I’m one member of a group of nurses who, after exhausting all other avenues, have sought to unite the nurses here and fight for our patients and our staff,” Kloster said. “We have been met with union busting activities meant to create division and discourage our efforts.”

One such effort, according to Kloster, included nurses being excluded from pay raises. Centura Health issued system-wide raises for all staff except for Longmont RNs in September.  According to Kloster, LUH administrators excluded the RNs from receiving raises due to the currently disputed union election, citing that the company couldn’t make changes to RN working conditions while the unionization efforts were ongoing. LUH administration has not offered comment on the raises to the public at this time.

In hopes of participating in the pay increases, Kloster and National Nurses United informed the LUH administration, at the time, that no charges would be filed if Longmont RNs were included in the pay increase. Despite the effort, raises were not extended to LUH RNs. At the beginning of November, Centura Health offered additional financial incentives for staff, once again excluding Longmont United’s RNs.

Kloster was joined by fellow LUH ICU RN Stephanie Chrisley, who shared the struggles the staff faced and sought better work conditions with the hospital administration to no avail resulting in the nurses reaching out to National Nurses United. 

As nursing staff went public with the unionization efforts, Chrisley said hospital management began circulating anti-union videos, presentations and other literature that portrayed unions in a negative light. Chrisley also said managers told nursing staff individually and in team meetings to vote against the unionization before voting had occurred.

The election, which is now under the review of the BLRB, is delayed due to some ballots being challenged by Centura Health’s attorneys. Current ballot counts report the majority of nurses voted in favor of unionizing but seven ballots remain unopened, leaving the final decision to unionize in limbo. 

These ballots are the ones challenged by Centura Health, Chrisley said. According to the NLRB, Centura Health filed an objection to the election in July, during the ballot count. After a hearing in September, Chrisley said the hospital administration continued to challenge and delay the opening of remaining ballots.

“We know they are hoping that as long as those ballots are unresolved, they can delay negotiating with us over what we deserve,” Chrisley said.

Chrisley stressed the unsafe conditions LUH’s nursing staff faces each day, particularly after losing RNs with decades of experience. Staff work lengthy shifts, missing breaks and meals and the majority of the staffing vacancies had not been filled, Chrisley said. The staffing shortage extends not only to patients in critical care in the ICU but other departments as well, leading to insufficient care for the patients. Chrisley said even when not on shift or on call, she received alerts to fill in shifts or assist in emergencies. 

“This is not sustainable for me or my coworkers and this is not a long-term solution to this staffing crisis,” Chrisley said. “I’m a wife and a mother of two and lately I have been in a state of chronic stress over the guilt that I feel to ensure my patients get the care they need and still care for myself and my family.”

Kloster and Chrisley were joined at the podium by representatives of state and local government, including Mayor Joan Peck and a representative from Congressman Joe Neguse’s office, Teddy Abrams. Congressman Neguse was unable to attend, due to obligations in Washington, D.C., Abrams said, but Neguse supported the unionization efforts of Longmont’s nurses.

Peck also spoke in support of the unionization effort, calling Centura’s withholding of pay raises “outrageous.” Nurses need to be cared for the way her family had been taken care of at LUH for decades, Peck said in her speech. 

“People unionize when they are not heard and they are treated badly,” Peck said. “They wouldn’t have unionized if they (Centura Health) would listen to them, buy them supplies they need, pay them what they need and hire enough nurses so they aren’t working such horribly long shifts. We can’t do this to our nurses.”

Geof Cahoon, president of the Boulder Area Labor Council and representative of the Colorado AFL-CIO said the legal obstructions and challenged ballots are a union-busting maneuver to limit union activities through the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act. Cahoon and the AFL-CIO have been assisting National Nurses United to support LUH unionization efforts and fight through the legal challenges.

“The modern labor movement isn’t about strikes, it's about partnerships and mutual interest between management and workers in making sure that we, together, are making sure the workplace functions safely and effectively,” Cahoon said. “That’s the struggle we have here. They want to write their own rules and we can’t let them.”

In a prepared statement ahead of the public event, LUH Interim CEO Kristi Olson kept the focus on maintaining operations at the hospital to minimize disruption to patients and visitors and said “all associates are expected to report for work as scheduled.”

Olson acknowledged the NLRB involvement in the union election, citing the undetermined election outcome and claiming the administration is working to resolve the matter.

“We believe this effort by NNU is an attempt to draw attention to the union and move its organizing efforts into the public domain,” Olson said. “The NLRB process is very important and we are committed to making sure that all voices were heard in the democratic election that was held by the NLRB.”

The administration at Centura Health and LUH have yet to release further comments after the public rally. This is an ongoing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.