5 hospitals get notice
of strike by nurses

Union negotiators issue a 10-day
warning to local medical centers

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By Helen Altonn
haltonn@starbulletin.com

All five of Hawaii's major hospitals have received 10-day strike notices from the Hawaii Nurses Association, with the last notice issued to The Queen's Medical Center at 2 a.m. yesterday after 11 hours of negotiations.

HNA negotiators delivered notices of intent to strike Thursday to Kapiolani, Kuakini and St. Francis hospitals and Kaiser received a notice Wednesday.

Negotiations resume Friday for Queen's. Gail Tiwanak, vice president of marketing and communications, said the hospital hopes to reach a settlement by Saturday.

Meanwhile, she said the hospital has ordered staffing from a mainland service to guarantee it will have registered nurses if there is a strike.

Issues at the Honolulu hospitals involve safe patient care, retention of experienced nurses, better retirement benefits and more say in their professional practice.

The last nurses' strike at the five major hospitals was in 1976, from Jan. 24 through Feb. 14.