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As nurses at St. Francis Medical Center vote today on a tentative agreement to end their seven-week strike, other nurses are preparing to raise public awareness about the nursing profession. Garage sales to help
nurses get the word outThe money raised will be used
for public-relations effortsBy Leila Fujimori
lfujimori@starbulletin.comNurses yesterday held a garage sale to raise money for a public-relations effort to get their side of the story out. The nurses say they were not as successful as the hospitals during the strike in getting their message out.
"I feel we didn't get the kind of support that we wanted," said Robin Tanner, a clinical hemodialysis expert at Queen's Medical Center. "Although we got great support, when we wanted to do petitions and went to business people, they didn't understand what the strike was about or what we were about."
The nurses said they went on strike primarily because of issues regarding paid time off, safe staffing, mandatory overtime and retirement benefits.
"It doesn't matter how much they pay you if you don't have quality of life," said Susan Carvalho, a Queen's nurse and a single parent.
The garage sale, featuring donated items ranging from a surfboard to jewelry, housewares, toys and clothes, was held at the NCR Building, a vacant building at 720 Kapiolani Blvd. owned by Unity House. They made $1,300 the previous Saturday and $1,111.18 yesterday.
The nurses are planning to use the money for a nurses' newsletter to strengthen themselves and to promote understanding about the profession through ads, mass mailings and other means.
Barbara Kirk, a former nurse practitioner now a social worker, came up with the idea during the strike to form a nonprofit organization, Friends of Hawaii's Professional Nurses, but it lacked the money to buy even a small newspaper ad.
Tanner said the group will remain independent from the Hawaii Nurses Association, but will work with the union.
"It is for the next time," Tanner said. "We had been complacent. In three years, we're going to be strong."
Nurses at St. Francis, Queen's and Kuakini Medical Center went on strike in early December. Kuakini nurses returned to work Friday. Queen's nurses will return to work starting next Friday after they ratified their contract Thursday.
St. Francis nurses reached a return-to-work agreement Friday night with the hospital, but union collective bargaining director Sue Scheider said the hospital is still working out a schedule on exactly when the nurses will return to the job if they approve the new contract.
The agreement also allows for nurses who resigned during the strike to work at other hospitals to return to St. Francis.
Scheider said all nurses must attend an orientation meeting before returning. She said temporary nurses flown in during the strike will be leaving by the end of next week and union nurses will not have to work alongside them.
St. Francis nurses are to meet 8 a.m. today for a briefing on the new contract, followed by the ratification vote. The voting goes on until 8 p.m. Nurses at St. Francis facilities on the neighbor islands will fax in their votes by 5 p.m.
Hawaii Nurses Association