Nurses at Windham Hospital are set to strike on Thursday morning. It comes after months of negotiations with the hospital.
The point the nurses are making is that at one point or another, everyone will most likely need to go to the hospital and will get cared for by a nurse, but these nurses say they are exhausted.
They have worked through covid, they're forced to work mandatory overtime and they can barely afford to use their own health insurance because of the rising rates.
Back in June, the nurses picketed outside of Windham Hospital and now they are going on strike because they still haven't reached what they see as a fair contract.
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“We've worked through probably what will be in our nursing career, one of the most difficult time periods of our career, and that's this pandemic, and, you know, for the hospital to come back. And, you know, throughout this past year, you know, mandate nurses to stay past their shifts physically exhaust them, it takes a toll. We've seen nurses leave at rapid, rapid paces," said Windham Federation of Professional Nurses President Andrea Riley.
About 100 staffers will take part in the two-day strike that will start on Thursday morning outside of the hospital in Willimantic.
After a strike notice was given last week, the hospital said it was "committed to reaching fair settlements on new contracts" and had offered higher pay and eliminating mandatory overtime.
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The hospital will have to bring in replacement workers for the 48-hour long strike.
