Dr. Dan Honors Nurses' Strike

Like the Herald-Leader community columnist quoted below, I, too, was taught from the cradle: "Never cross a picket line."

Unlike Dan Mongiardo, I've never been faced with the choice of whether to do so in order to perform my job.

But I hope, if I ever do face a picket line, I'll have the courage and personal integrity to do as Dr. Dan, and honor the strikers by turning back.

When I was growing up here in Eastern Kentucky, I learned something very important: Never cross a picket line.

That mantra has been such a part of my and, indeed, this region's life that I can scarcely imagine anyone even daring to do such a thing. That is something Gov. Ernie Fletcher would do well to realize.

Fletcher, a Republican seeking a second term, has criticized Dr. Dan Mongiardo, the Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor, for not doing just that.

On Oct. 5, Mongiardo, a surgeon, refused to cross a picket line at the Appalachian Regional Healthcare hospital in Hazard. Nurses there have been on strike and at other ARH hospitals since Oct. 1, citing poor staffing ratios, mandatory overtime and paltry pay raises. The nurses are also asking for better retirement and medical benefits.

Negotiations had gone on for several weeks, with ARH's final offer including a 2 percent pay raise that would gradually increase to 3 percent. The offer also included less holiday pay and higher insurance premiums that the nurses say would more than cancel any pay raise they might receive with the deal.

Fletcher, who is also a physician, voiced his criticism of Mongiardo from the relative luxury of Louisville's famed Seelbach Hotel. He said he had crossed picket lines in 1987 to deliver babies and questioned Mongiardo's commitment to patient care.

The ARH nurses say the strike is all about patient care. They argue that their hospitals have been constantly understaffed and that forced overtime has left them exhausted and unable to do their jobs to the best of their abilities.

"You can't have good patient care if you don't have enough staff," said Pat Tanner, a negotiator for the nurses.

Many nurses on the picket line held signs saying, "Every patient deserves a nurse!" --with which most of us would agree.

ARH, which serves more than 350,000 patients in Kentucky's poorest region, has said that patient care will not suffer. Donnie Fields, senior community CEO at ARH's Hazard hospital, said that "the hospital is operating at full capacity using temporary replacement nurses, union nurses who didn't walk off the job and licensed practical nurses."

We have a word for people like that where I'm from, and I'll bet, where Fields is from: scab. But perhaps the bigger questions are: Where were these replacements when the nurses originally wanted additional staff hired? Why wasn't more of an effort made to run the hospital at "full capacity" to begin with? Who really has been negligent about patient care?

Mongiardo is continuing to see patients in his office and will treat people who need urgent care, but he is urging those who have elective procedures scheduled to either reschedule or seek treatment elsewhere.

Mongiardo has said that he supports the more than 630 registered nurses at Hazard and eight other ARH hospitals throughout Kentucky and West Virginia. He has also said his position is not connected to the Nov. 6 election and that fighting "between Democrats and Republicans at election time is not the answer to this (nurses' strike) problem.

Well, hallelujah. Somebody has enough of a backbone to put politics aside and stick to their beliefs. Fair working conditions for everybody and responsible patient care should be neither red nor blue.

Keila Bender of Grayson is a stay-at-home wife and mother.

Forgive me, Ms. Bender and Herald, for reproducing the piece in full, but it's too good to excerpt.

POSTSCRIPT: Kevin Drum has some relevant thoughts on unions and the social contract.

Cross-posted at BlueGrassRoots.