Nurses, caregivers go on strike in front of Swedish Medical Centers

Facing the cold and the rain, nurses and caregivers at the Swedish Medical Center in Ballard began their strike Tuesday morning.

They are among workers picketing at seven Swedish sites in the Seattle area this week.

"When quality care is under attack, what do we do?" a man shouted among the crowd shortly after the strike began at 7 a.m.

"Stand up, fight back!" they chanted in response while pacing with picket signs.

The signs were written in multiple languages, stating: "Patients Before Profits;" Safe Staffing Saves Lives;" and "United for Our Patients."

Swedish Medical Center prepares for worker strike, closes 2 ERs

“We did not want to strike, this was our last resort,” said Kale Rose, a registered nurse who has worked at the Ballard location for eight years. “But we were forced to come out and stand up for our patients."

"I work in labor and delivery and we have to make sure that our most vulnerable patients have enough staff, have enough nurses, have enough people to clean the hospital," she said. "So we are standing up for those vulnerable people to be able to take good, safe care of them.”

Terry Thompson was also on the picket line. She's a registered nurse who has worked at Swedish's Ballard site for 31 years. She said that the nurses gave Swedish 10-days notice of the strike, keeping the door open to start negotiations.

Thompson further notes that the picket lines will continue 24 hours a day -- a schedule that nurses who work long hours can handle. The strike is slated to last until Friday.

"The ideal outcome would be that we get a 3-4 year contract with wages that keep up with the cost of living and we can increase our staffing level in each unit to what the staff – who actually care for the patients – we know what we need," Thompson said. "So we just need to encourage the management team to listen to us. If they have to spend more resources, financially, to increase the staffing, that’s what they should be doing.”

Nurses and caregivers voted to strike after nine months of contract negotiations. Swedish has responded by shutting down two emergency rooms in Ballard and Redmond.

Swedish officials have argued that they are disappointed that the nurses opted to strike after they offered a contract. They say, however, the union is asking for too much control.

Swedish "running smoothly" amid strike

The union represents about 7,800 members and says that it has had near-full participation in the strike Tuesday. It would not give exact numbers, however.

Officials with Swedish also would not say how many nurses came to work despite the strike, but did comment that a "significant number" showed up. They said that care continued uninterrupted Tuesday and operations were running smoothly.

Swedish released this statement Tuesday:

Safe, quality care continues uninterrupted on the first day of a three-day strike called by SEIU 1199NW at all Swedish campuses. The strike began at 7 a.m. today and will conclude at 7:30 a.m. on Friday, January 31.

We are deeply grateful that a significant number of represented caregivers made the personal choice to report to work and serve our patients. It is important for our patients, their families and our community to know that they can continue to count on Swedish to provide high-quality, safe and compassionate care during the strike.

We are pleased that operations are running smoothly at all of our campuses. When striking caregivers left their units this morning, replacement workers were brought onto patient floors to take their place and provide care to our patients. We are grateful to our physicians, nurse managers and other medical staff for their leadership in ensuring a safe transition of patient care. Swedish is continuing to provide the services we expected to provide during the strike. Swedish announced over the weekend that the Ballard and Redmond emergency departments, and Ballard Labor and Delivery, are closed during the strike and will reopen Friday morning. Since the strike began, there have been no patient care incidents related to those closures.