On April 10, every registered nurse at CommonSpirit Longmont United Hospital (LUH) voted to ratify a new three-year contract. It is the first acute care private-sector contract for RNs in Colorado. The contract includes protections for patients and nurses, including scheduled monthly meetings to discuss solutions for patient care issues.
“This victory means that we can advocate for our patients and ourselves to improve patient care,” Diane Stuppler, a labor and delivery RN at LUH, told the Longmont Leader. “It means we will have safer staffing so we can give our patients the care they deserve. LUH is a much better place for patients with this contract. Retention and recruitment of nurses will improve.”
National Nurses United includes more than 225,000 members across the country, including VA Eastern Colorado Health Care system hospitals in Denver and Aurora. The nurses won their vote to unionize in 2022. The union press release states that they had to fight management for years to get to the bargaining table in 2024 before finalizing the first contract last week. Stuppler said that community support helped bring this contract to fruition.
“Management contested the union vote and did not want to come to the bargaining table,” Stuppler said. “The community supported us by showing up when we needed them. Under our previous owner, we held events calling on Centura, for eroding patient care conditions. Our community quickly pulled together as leaders from various local and state organizations, elected leaders, and labor councils to show support for the nursing team at our beloved hospital. Community leaders came to our events, signed our petitions, and invited us to speak in their engagements to spread awareness. We are here today because of the support we received. Thank you to everyone who has been with us on this righteous journey.”
The new protections in the contract are expected to improve nurse retention by ensuring the hospital is adequately staffed and the nurses are not overworked. The new compensation package is competitive with the Denver metro area. Nurses will have access to “the highest level of personal protective equipment” when taking care of patients who have infectious diseases.
“This contract ratification is such a historic moment for nurses in Colorado because it shows the power of nurses and that it is possible to unionize in a right-to-work state,” Stuppler said. “Our victory is proof that when nurses organize collectively, we can win. We are so proud and excited to be part of National Nurses Organizing Committee, an affiliate of National Nurses United. We know that the best way to advocate for our patients and for ourselves is as union nurses. As union nurses, we can speak up for our patients without fear of retaliation. We know there is interest from nurses all around Colorado and the Mountain States to join our union. Every day that hospitals put profits before patients we will be out here organizing. Our NNU affiliate in Minnesota had some organizing wins earlier this year, with hundreds of nurses voting to join Minnesota Nurses Association.”
The nurses say the new contract will give them adequate protections so they can provide the best care for their patients.
