Letter: Kadlec nurses want negotiating team to keep fighting

The recent vote by the Kadlec nurses to advise our negotiators that we’re willing to strike, if it comes to that, does not mean we are walking out tomorrow. I think it’s safe to say none of us want to walk out, ever.

What we will not tolerate, however, is being taken advantage of by a corporation that cares more about their bottom line than they do about their staff.

We are not OK having all of our sick time and a big chunk of our vacation time taken from us, while at the same time we watch millions of dollars put into construction of the tower. We are not OK with them wanting to constantly expand the number of patient beds, while they refuse to adequately staff the units already filled. We are not OK with being bribed with astronomically huge insurance premiums.

We have only asked to keep what we have, and over and over Kadlec has said no.

What we voted yes to was telling our negotiating team to keep fighting for us. We are not a group with deep corporate pockets to pull from; our power is in our numbers. What we told them is that we are not afraid to use that power if we have to.

This story was originally published December 22, 2015 at 5:18 PM with the headline "Letter: Kadlec nurses want negotiating team to keep fighting."