Senator-elect Andy Kim joins Clara Maass nurses in fighting for contract • New Jersey Monitor

Senator-elect Andy Kim joined a group of nurses Tuesday in support of their long-running fight for a contract with Clara Maass Medical Center in Bellevillenoticed that his mother was a nurse who spent her career working in New Jersey hospitals.

At the virtual meeting with nurses and union representatives, Kim recalled his mother’s lack of protection at work and the pain she suffered after a long day at work. He called nursing a crucial profession and said nurses must do it be treated with respect.

“Nurses like my mother, nurses these are Don’t ask about the moon here. They demand fair treatmentTo be treated with Respect, and that is something The They deserve it,” said Kim, a congressman from Burlington County who is taking his Senate seat next week.

Clara Maass is part of the RWJ Barnabas Health network. Approximately 500 Clara Maass nurses voted to unionize and join the 1199SEIU in August 2022.

According to the nurses, RWJ Barnabas Health officials have refused to agree to a pact since contract negotiations began in 2022. nurses at At the press conference on Tuesday it was said that they had done so been fulfilled with months of malicious bargaining and unfair treatment in retaliation for their unionization.

Hospital officials dispute that characterization and say they met with the nurses in more than 30 bargaining sessionsaccording to a Statement on the health network website.

“Given our history as a pro-union organization, we approached these negotiations in good faith, as always, and see no reason why an agreement has not already been reached,” the hospital’s statement said.

Some Clara Maass nurses are pushing to decertify the 2022 union campaign, according to the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation.

Elizabeth Mendez Corbin, a nurse at Clara Maass, called the hospital “A gem in Belleville,” but the nurses are unionized because they are not treated well by management.

“As we continue to serve the community and create an environment where our patients feel at home, at home away from home, we feel so pressured And “We feel so mistreated and undervalued by management that we felt like we had to stand up for ourselves,” Mendez Corbin said.

She said some nurses have been there for four decades and still struggle with low sickness absence, low pay and a lack of protection from disease.

Rep. Carmen Theresa Morales (D-Essex), Charlene Walker of Faith, New Jersey, and Todd E. Vachon, director of the Labor Education Action Research Network at Rutgers University, also joined the call.

Morales said the Belleville hospital is a “lifeline” for Essex County residents. There is a nursing shortage in New Jersey, and she doesn’t want to see the quality of care suffer be influenced with Clara Maaßshe said.

The standoff between Clara Maass nurses and management is the latest in a series of contract disputes between New Jersey hospitals and their employees. Last summer, roughly 1,700 nurses went away the job for four months at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, citing concerns about staffing and pay significant problems. The parties resolved the matter in December following notification from the union was insured an improved patient-care relationship.

After months of negotiations, a nurses’ strike at University Hospital in Newark was narrowly avoided in October. The nurses signed a three-year contract that includes improved patient-to-nurse ratio, a new pay scale and a staff committee to review compliance.

Kim said now is “a challenging time in America, a challenging time for families in terms of affordability.” He said that as a father of two young boys, he was worried about the chances of future generations.

“Here, too, we are not asking about the moon, but rather attempt To Make sure that this deal is done. That’s why I continue to stand with you and try to reach a deal as quickly as possible – one that increases what you earn and … gives something to your families,” he said.