Picket Line, 'Thank You Parade' At Belleville Hospital On Nurses Week

NOTE: This article has been updated with a statement from Clara Maass Medical Center.

BELLEVILLE, NJ — National Nurses Week was celebrated in two very different ways this year at Clara Maass Medical Center in Belleville: an “appreciation parade” and a labor protest.

Emergency responders from Belleville and Nutley recently organized an inspiring parade to honor nurses at the hospital in tribute to National Nurses Week. Police and firefighters from both towns drove by the main entrance with their sirens sounding as a sign of respect for health care workers (watch the video online here).

Meanwhile, unionized nurses affiliated with 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East continued their long-running demands for a new work contract on Wednesday, forming a picket line at the hospital and carrying signs that read “Less Pizza, More Safe Staffing” and “Respect My Hard Work, Hands Off My PTO.”

“This Nurses Week, we are expressing our commitment to being excellent nurses by walking the picket line and calling on Clara Maass to do the right thing for nurses and our patients,” said Raquel Casuple, a registered nurse who supported Wednesday’s rally.

“As nurses, we want real collaboration with management to ensure the highest standards of patient care,” agreed Brandon Rosario, another worker involved in the picket line.

“It’s important to know that our benefits are secure, including our paid time off, which we have worked so hard to earn,” Rosario said.

In April, union leaders announced that they have filed a federal unfair labor charge with the National Labor Relations Board against Clara Maass and its parent organization RWJBarnabas Health Inc., which has a corporate office in West Orange.

The union is alleging that the hospital is refusing to “bargain in good faith” on a new work contract – an accusation that administrators have called “baseless and insulting.”

In the summer of 2022, more than 500 registered nurses at Clara Maass voted to form a union with 1199SEIU. Spokespeople said that “safe staffing,” job security, pay and benefits were among the most important issues.

The newly unionized health care workers have been trying to land their first work contract ever since, but talks with hospital administrators have been hitting a brick wall.

• See Related: Labor Strife Flares Up Again At Clara Maass Hospital In Belleville

However, hospital administrators have maintained that they are bargaining in “good faith” with the nurses and their union.

A spokesperson gave Patch the following statement about the ongoing contract talks with the union:

"Clara Maass Medical Center has attempted to negotiate with the SEIU in good faith for almost two years – but the SEIU has yet to agree on proposals consistently put forth by management. Instead, SEIU inexplicably continues to complicate and delay any meaningful progress with stunts such as this recent misinformation campaign.

"Everyone surely remembers that when other RNs in our system received market wage adjustment increases in 2022, the SEIU would not agree to these wage increases for our nurses at Clara Maass until September 2023. Our full-time nurses lost on average approximately $7,000 because of the SEIU’s delay in agreeing to this.

"Only through the Medical Center’s persistence in negotiations have we been able to realize any progress for our nurses – including an average 12.3% increase of nurses’ salaries during the past year along with significant increases in shift, preceptor and charge differentials. Unfortunately, SEIU continues to misrepresent the hospital's positions -- and they know it. Today they purposefully misrepresent our policies on wages, paid time off, and benefits. CMMC has proposed the continuation of the same policies providing health, retirement and paid time off that have been inexistence for years at CMMC. In fact, from the outset of bargaining in 2022 CMMC has NOT proposed any reduction in employee benefits, paid time off, or other concessions. Besides these significant economic improvements for our nurses, the parties have agreed to more than 20 economic and non-economic articles for a new contract.

"It’s been almost two years. Given these facts which SEIU cannot dispute, there is no reason why there has not already been a settlement."

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