AUSTIN, Texas — Nurses with Ascension Seton Medical Center in Austin are set to go on strike for a second time this year. But after their first strike in June, local nurses say they haven't seen many changes from hospital administrators.
"They're choosing not to work at the bedside. So that in itself should show our community that, you know, we are here in conditions that people don't want to work in," Kristine Kittelson, an Ascension Seton Medical Center nurse, said this past June.
Nurses are pushing for safer working conditions in a new union contract with Ascension Seton.
"We've made a lot of improvements and a lot of progress, but we've still got a lot more to accomplish," said Lindsay Spinney, a neonatal ICU nurse at Ascension Seton Medical Center.
Spinney is on the union's bargaining team. She said nurses are often forced to work without vital resources.
"Lack of equipment, broken equipment and not getting equipment and supplies that we need to actually do our job and care for our patients," Spinney said.
In a statement provided to KVUE, an Ascension Seton spokesperson said in part, "We are disappointed NNU has made the decision to proceed with its second strike this year, once again creating unnecessary uncertainty for our associates and their families, and concern for our patients and their loved ones."
"We care a lot about our patients. We care a lot about our community. We also care a lot about each other as nurses. Ascension could make these changes at any point in time. The fact that we care so much is the reason that we're calling a one-day strike," Spinney said.
In the meantime, Ascension said temporary nurses will come to fill gaps during the strike, but they have to stay for at least four days. Nurses who strike won't be able to return until at least Dec. 10.
Spinney said right now, patients are at risk.
"We scrounge from other units when we can, but they just literally go without," she said.
Both parties maintain they're negotiating in good faith to come to an agreement.