Nurses at Kalispell Regional Healthcare Launch Unionization Effort

Nurses at Kalispell Regional Healthcare are organizing an effort to unionize, citing an array of grievances related to unfair wages, loss of benefits, unsafe work conditions, low morale and suboptimal patient environments.

While some grievances have been simmering for years, the movement to unionize was spurred by news earlier this year of a lawsuit filed by the hospital’s physician network’s chief financial officer and a federal investigation into KRH for an allegedly illegal scheme of improper payments to certain physicians, and the hospital’s efforts to trim costs as it faces a pending $21.5 million settlement, according to interviews with nurses.

Nurses say they and other non-physician employees at the hospital have unfairly felt the brunt of cost-cutting efforts stemming from a settlement and allegations that have nothing to do with them. A half-dozen nurses spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

As one example, they said their pay-raise ceiling was recently lowered, at a time when KRH nurses’ wages were already among the lowest in the state, according to their research. They add that raises are infrequently given, and that wages don’t adhere to a consistent or transparent scale, nor are they adequately increased when nurses secure certifications, as is expected.

Read more: https://flatheadbeacon.com/2018/08/28/nurses-kalispell-regional-healthcare-launch-unionization-effort/