Nurses and healthcare professionals from Windham Hospital have been in contract talks with Hartford Healthcare for almost a year. While one union seems to be making progress, the other could be moving toward a strike.
It’s been nearly three weeks since nurses at Windham Hospital went on strike, and they’re not alone in their fight for improved working conditions.
“Just like the nurses, they’re just as exhausted and tired and afraid for their own health and safety and it’s time. We’re all ready to stand up,” said Heather Howlett, Windham Hospital clinical assistant and president of Windham United to Save our Healthcare.
In September, Windham Hospital healthcare professionals supported the nurses on the picket lines. Now, their union could go down a similar road.
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“We’re looking for better insurance and the wages,” Howlett said. “I think the insurance for our side is a little more important.”
On Monday, both unions met at AFT Connecticut in Rocky Hill to reiterate their demands for improved wages, healthcare and scheduling.
“Let’s agree. Let’s move forward. Let’s get a contract,” said Andrea Riley, a nurse at Windham hospital and president of Windham Federation of Professional Nurses.
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In a statement, the hospital's parent company, Hartford HealthCare, echoed its message from September, saying it has responded to ‘every one’ of the unions issues since June.
"The union appears unwilling to take ‘yes’ for an answer,” the statement read.
Riley says the nurses are looking for what’s fair.
“What we’re unwilling to do is concede to a contract that does not provide the things we are asking for,” she said.
Riley said she believes the two sides are making progress. The nurses’ union is currently reviewing a counter-proposal from Hartford HealthCare, with plans of submitting a counter of their own in the near future.
“We’re very close where the hospital and the union can come together and say ‘here we are membership, we both agree to this, both parties agree with this,'” Riley said.
But the healthcare workers union says there’s still work to be done.
“We’ll be looking to go on strike soon,” Howlett said. “We were hoping that maybe that would kind of push the hand of Hartford HealthCare to wake up and see that we’re not asking for all that much.”
Hartford HealthCare stated on Monday that it is willing to “consider a counterproposal from the union that works within our offer’s total economic package.”
