Via Christi St. Joseph nurses vote to authorize strike

WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) - Union nurses at Ascension Via Christi St. Joseph hospital in Wichita have authorized a strike in a vote held this week, National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United (NNOC/NNU) announced today. Nurses at the hospital, which is owned by Ascension, voted 90 percent in favor of authorizing the strike.

Nurses say they’ve “had enough of the company’s practices putting profits before patients.”

St. Joseph is the second Ascension-owned Wichita hospital where nurses have recently authorized a strike, as RNs at nearby Ascension Via Christi St. Francis also voted 93 percent to authorize a strike at the end of May. Nurses at both facilities have begun bargaining their first union contract with Ascension after voting to join NNU within the last year.

St. Joseph is also the third Ascension-owned facility where nurses have voted to authorize a strike in recent weeks, joining St. Francis and Ascension Seton Medical Center Austin in Texas. Nurses will provide standard notice of a plan to strike at least ten days in advance.

“We have a staffing crisis at our hospital because management refuses to get serious about nurse recruitment and retention,” said Marvin Ruckle, RN in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). “We know a strong union contract is the best way to address this, and we’re prepared to show management that we’ll fight for our patients at the table and on the strike line.”

Nurses say they believe a strong contract is the way to make progress on all the issues they fear are impacting patient care, including workplace violence, staffing, and nurse recruitment and retention. They believe a strong union contract could codify violence prevention plans, mandate safe staffing levels, and generally improve the poor conditions that management has created, which they say are driving nurses away from the hospitals.

In March 2023, Ascension Via Christi St. Joseph nurses voted to join NNOC/NNU. St. Joseph’s is the second Ascension-owned Wichita facility where nurses elected to join the union, following Ascension Via Christi St. Francis. Nurses at both facilities recently held a rally calling on Ascension management to bargaining with both facilities on a joint contract, as the hospitals are mere miles apart and serve overlapping patient populations.

Between St. Joseph and St. Francis, NNOC/NNU represents a total of nearly 1,000 Wichita-area nurses, with more than 650 at St. Francis and 300 at St. Joseph.

Ascension Via Christi issued the following response to the union’s action:

“We continue to bargain in good faith with National Nurses United to come to a mutually beneficial agreement on an initial contract that supports all and will further our goal of providing safe, compassionate care to those we serve. While we respect our associates’ right to organize themselves through union representation and participate in a strike authorization vote, this action is disappointing given that the Ascension Via Christi St. Joseph bargaining team and NNU bargaining team have only held one bargaining session on the initial collective bargaining agreement. Additional bargaining sessions are scheduled through the end of August. We have not received a 10-day strike notice from NNU for either Ascension Via Christi St. Joseph or Ascension Via Christi St. Francis. Should we receive an official strike notification, we have a comprehensive contingency plan in place to ensure our patients experience no disruption in care or service.”