New Orleans: Nurses at UMC begin 6th strike in 18 months
New Orleans, LA – Beginning at 7 a.m. on May 1, around 50 nurses, staffers and community members picketed in front of the University Medical Center (UMC) to mark the start of a five-day strike. Nurses are demanding that LCMC Health System, which runs UMC, agree to the contract that the union has been fighting for over two years. Among their demands are better wages, more staffing, and the rehiring of nurse Mike Robertshaw, who was fired for his involvement with the union.
“We’re going to light the fire of a labor movement in New Orleans that will burn bright with labor relations, living wages, comprehensive health insurance and safe staffing,” said nurse David Duplechain in a rousing speech.
The striking nurses are registered with National Nurses United and are currently the only nurses' union in the state. The union local represents over 600 nurses and was registered in December of 2023 with an 82% vote. Since forming the union, nurses at UMC have gone on strike six times now, yet the company continues to refuses to agree to a contract. Every day the nurses go on strike, LCMC pays roughly $2 million to replace them with temporary workers.
“They know that if they don’t silence us, they’ve got an infestation of union nurses,” said Kim Triplett, a nurse in the hospital’s psych unit.
At each round of negotiations so far, LCMC has refused to sign the proposed contract, even going so far as to lock striking nurses out of the hospital and fire known union organizers. The union local recently filed a grievance with the National Labor Relations Board, arguing that the company has engaged in bad-faith bargaining.
“We have filed an unfair labor practice because we are tired of their surface-level bargaining. We have been at this fight for two years,” said Hailey Dupre, a nurse on the bargaining team.
Despite the resistance from management and high turnover rates, the nurses have not let up.
“I have fought for this community all my life, and I’m not gonna stop. We are going to win this,” said Terry Mogilles, who has been a nurse for several decades now.