Senator Sherrod Brown is standing up for East Liverpool’s nurses, patients and community by issuing a media statement and sending a letter directly to hospital administrators, promoting the importance of good-faith bargaining and competitive wages to keep good nurses at the bedside. Senator Brown’s media statement can be read below and the letter may be read here. Thank you Senator Brown for supporting East Liverpool nurses and patients and for standing up for what’s right: patient care over hospital profits. 

 

Senator Presses Hospital Owner to Take into Account Unprecedented Pandemic Nurses are Navigating; New Contract Must Honor the Dignity of Nurses’ Work with Salaries Comparable to Similar Rural Hospitals

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) today wrote a letter to Prime Healthcare President and CEO, Prem Reddy, to urge the company to negotiate in good faith with the nurses’ union at East Liverpool City Hospital. In his letter, Brown points to the additional challenges that hospital leadership and the nurses are facing during the COVID-19 pandemic and asks Prime Healthcare to come together with the hospital nurses to reach an agreement that best serves the workers, patients, and the community.

“Having met with the different sides during many negotiations between employers and workers during my time in office, I recognize that it is a tense, often frustrating process. I urge you to come back to the table and work in good faith with East Liverpool City Hospital nurses to come to an agreement that best serves workers, patients and the community,” Brown wrote. “Nurses are essential to your ability to fulfill your mission. They are compassionate and skilled professionals who work long hours doing all-too-often thankless, but critical work. They are the face and the heart of the East Liverpool City Hospital system, often the primary workers providing comfort and care to patients and families who rely on your hospital during some of their most difficult times. Right now, it is critical that we reach a workable solution to protect the community of East Liverpool from any additional disruption in the middle of a global pandemic.”