Meriter Hospital nurses and health care workers at UW Health and Group Health Cooperative (GHC) called for safer staffing ratios, security measures and wage increases at Madison hospitals in a press conference Thursday.
The nurses represented by Services Employees International Union (SEIU) Wisconsin said they have been in contract negotiations for roughly one month and are currently fighting for protections from physical assault, gun violence and more. They also highlighted the need for improved communications with frontline nurses during violent situations such as the Abundant Life school shooting in December.
“When a facility is in secure status after these events, we want to make sure there’s communication happening so that everyone is aware of what to do,” SEIU Chief of Staff Crystal Martzall told The Daily Cardinal. SEIU Executive Director Louis Davis also told the Cardinal that most health care workers who reach out to SEIU for unionizing purposes mention gun safety as a top concern in negotiations.
Carol Lemke, who has worked as a nurse at Meriter for 24 years, said health care workers are facing an increased threat of violence that could in part be solved by metal detectors, updated emergency protocols and safer staffing. She said she is “concerned that Meriter is focusing on the money it could save instead of the patients’ lives nurses hold in [their] hands” in their negotiations with workers.
“This is the year that nurses will be heard. We know what we need to deliver the highest quality care and we are demanding a voice at the table,” Lemke said.
UW Health nurse Justin Giebel also emphasized the need for safer staffing ratios, linking them directly to better patient outcomes and workplace safety. He described watching colleagues be “bitten, kicked, choked and hit” on the job and urged hospital management to be “proactive” in preventing further harm.
“We do this work because we care deeply for our patients. But if we aren't given the tools to respond effectively to unsafe situations, we can't uphold the highest standards of care,” Giebel said.
South Central Federation of Labor President Kevin Gundlach, whose labor council consists of 90 unions, and GHC physician assistant Julie Vander Werff, who helped to organize a union at her clinic, spoke to the importance of collective bargaining in making Wisconsin a “great place to work and receive quality care.”
“Union health care workers are a powerful force for change, not only for their own hospitals, but for every facility in the region and for the community at large,” Vander Werff said. “We are united with Meriter nurses as SEIU Wisconsin union siblings, and we will fight alongside them because we are stronger together.”
UW Health nurses have experienced similar internal issues since 2014, advocating against wage caps, poor retention rates and short staffing. In 2019 and again in early 2022, UW Health nurses signed union cards seeking recognition, but the board refused. Nurses went on strike in September 2022, which was averted through an agreement that restored the nurses’ union voice but did not grant them collective bargaining rights.
Meriter hospital workers are expected to meet with hospital leadership again next week to continue negotiations, according to Channel 3000.
Sreejita Patra is a senior staff writer and the former summer ad sales manager for The Daily Cardinal. She has written for breaking news, campus news and arts and has done extensive reporting on the 2024 presidential race. She also covered the Oregon Village Board for the Oregon Observer.
