Striking RWJ Nurses To March In Maplewood, Where RWJBarnabas CEO Lives

MAPLEWOOD, NJ — The nurses who remain on strike at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick are turning up the heat:

This Saturday, the nurses will hold a protest march in Maplewood, the town where RWJBarnabas Health CEO Mark Manigan lives. It is unknown if they will protest on the street where he lives or outside his house.

Strike organizers from nurses' union USW Local 4-200 say they will meet at Maplewood Memorial Park at 5 p.m. Saturday, where they "will be calling on CEO and President Mark Manigan to put safe staffing first for the 1,700 dedicated nurses."

The nurses at the New Brunswick hospital have been on strike for five weeks now; they walked off the job starting Aug. 4. What they are asking for is for RWJ to hire more nurses, for salary increases across the board and for the hospital to put a cap on how much they have to pay to their health insurance.

The last time both sides met was for a seven-hour meeting on Aug. 16, at which two federal mediators were present.

A federal mediator has scheduled both sides to next meet again Thursday, Sept. 14.

Last Friday, Sept. 1 RWJBarnabas turned off health insurance for the nurses who are on strike. The hospital told union leaders in July they would have to enroll in COBRA because they had not worked the required hours for the month of August to qualify for benefits.

This was an unprecedented move by RWJ and did not happen the last time the RWJ nurses went on strike, in 2006. That strike lasted for six weeks.

The hospital says it has met their demands and the union turned down their proposals, returning with salary requests that were even higher than what they originally asked for, said a hospital spokesman.

"Management must meet us back at the bargaining table so we can get this resolved,” said Local 4-200 President Judy Danella. “We want to get back to work."

"We remain deeply concerned about the impact the union’s prolonged strike is having on our nurses and their families," said RWJ hospital spokeswoman Wendy Gottsegen, who works in marketing and communications for RWJBarnabas Health. "We hope the union shares our objective to return to the negotiating table with the goal of ending this strike immediately.”

RWJUH Cuts Off Health Insurance For Nurses On Strike, Starting Friday (Aug. 29)

Striking RWJ Nurses Ask Gov. Murphy To Get More Involved (Aug. 25)