The United Steelworkers 4-200 union and Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital management remain deadlocked, with the rhetoric and moods intensifying as the strike nears its second full month.

The walkout began Aug. 4 when some 1,700 nurses hit the picket line – right outside of the New Brunswick hospital.

The union has regarded staffing levels as its top priority and the main reason for the job action. Since the strike began, union representatives have complained about the use of replacement nurses – which has come at a high cost to the hospital – as well as the discontinuing of health benefits as of Sept. 1, and more.

Meanwhile, management has maintained that RWJUH nurses are among the highest paid in the state (based on available public data), that its staffing levels are already among the highest in New Jersey and above those outlined in proposed legislation in Trenton, and that an MOU was agreed to in July by hospital and union leaders addressing staffing concerns and increasing nurse wages and benefits – but rejected by union members. RWJUH also notes that it extended an updated offer Aug. 2 that further addressed staffing concerns, provided a $20 an hour bonus for nurses should the hospital fall below agreed upon standards and further increased on-call pay, which the hospital said the union did not respond to.

But as the picket line has remained active, creating a spirited scene right outside of the hospital every day, with cars often honking in solidarity, the situation has gotten more tense due to a combination of both sides seemingly digging in their heels, and very few mediation sessions.

Right after Labor Day, the union held a news conference to blast hospital leadership over those aforementioned concerns – saying members felt as though they were being cast aside by hospital management.

“We are dismissed by management. We are not disposable,” said Judy Danella, president of USW Local 4-200 and a hospital employee since 1995, who stressed the priority of the staffing level issue and called for more bargaining. “I just want to thank every single nurse out here – no matter where you work – on this sweltering day. For coming out here and sharing your stories and just sharing solidarity – one day longer, one day stronger. We will get through this.”

Earlier this month, the first bargaining session in many weeks was held with federal mediators, which provided a glimmer of hope that was quickly dimmed as union members announced Sept. 19 they voted to reject a proposed three-year contract with RWJUH.

“Short staffing remains our number one priority, and our members clearly don’t believe this contract went far enough in this area,” Danella said in a statement. “We need better staffing so that we can keep workers safe on the job and continue providing top-quality care for our patients.”

RWJUH responded by expressing disappointment with the union’s vote to prolong the strike indefinitely. “RWJUH provided the union with two, separate options for ending the strike – either accepting the hospital’s offer from Aug. 2 that would have ensured the state’s highest staffing standards and nurse compensation or agreeing to enter binding arbitration,” said Wendy Gottsegen, RWJUH spokesperson in a statement. “The union rejected both.”

The union had had until Sept. 19 to respond to the offer, following that Sept. 14 mediation session that had concluded without an agreement. Leaders instead called for continuous negotiations.

“We remain frustrated at the refusal of RWJBarnabas’ corporate executives to engage in round-the-clock bargaining – or even to agree to another bargaining date,” Danella said in a Sept. 14 statement following those negotiations. “We will only reach a contract that is fair to front-line nurses and improves safety for patients if the corporate executives at RWJBarnabas agree to sit across the negotiating table from us and bargain in good faith.”

Gov. Phil Murphy – who has not waded into the situation nearly as forcefully as his office did when it helped assist talks during the faculty strike at Rutgers University earlier this year that led to a resolution – was asked about it on his most recent “Ask Governor Murphy” radio show hosted by WNYC Senior Reporter Nancy Solomon.

Murphy said he was not happy. “We’re a proud pro-labor state,” the governor declared. “There’s no group of workers that are more heroic than our frontline health care workers. And the fact that this is going on without resolution is, in my opinion, unacceptable.”

Those comments came just before those fruitless talks, but Murphy said he hoped negotiations would continue.

“That’s something that we have been encouraging and, in the vernacular, ‘get into a room, lock the door, throw the key away, and get a deal,’” Murphy told Solomon and the caller who asked about the strike. “I know collective bargaining is hard and I know – please God – both sides enter that in a spirit of goodwill. But, at the end of the day, another baseball phrase – instead of tie goes to the runner, tie goes to the worker. We are a proud – as I mentioned – labor state. These are heroes. Let’s get this thing resolved.”

The union seized on those comments. “We agree with Gov. Murphy’s statement today that we should ‘get in the room’ and keep negotiating until we come to a fair agreement and thank the governor for his strong comments,” Danella said Sept. 14. “Yet today demonstrates that RWJBarnabas’ corporate executives care more about profits than they do the livelihoods of nurses who put their lives on the line during the pandemic – as well as the safety of the patients we serve. We remain ready and willing to engage in continuous negotiations until we reach a fair contract. We only wish RWJBarnabas’ corporate executives felt the same way.”

RWJUH quickly fired back. “The union’s claims about the hospital’s unwillingness to participate in ‘round-the-clock’ negotiations are bogus. The dates and length of sessions are set by the federal mediators, not the hospital or the union. The union knows this full well but chooses to misrepresent the facts, once again,” said Gottsegen on Sept. 14. “RWJUH is doing everything it can to end this strike. The strike is taking hundreds of thousands of dollars per day out of the pockets of our nurses and their families. The cost of the strike is too great for it to continue indefinitely.”

After the Sept. 19 rejection, RWJUH said it is clear by that action that the union does not share in management’s commitment to reaching a resolution that ends this strike immediately.

“We encourage management to come back to the table with an offer that reflects our dedication and prioritizes safety and health,” said Danella on Sept. 19.

And as if the situation could not get more heated, RWJUH was granted a temporary restraining order last week by Middlesex County Superior Court Judge Thomas McCloskey regarding the picket line outside of the hospital. “A temporary restraining order was entered against USW 4-200 to bar them from blocking entrances and exits to parking decks and other obstructive behaviors designed to disrupt care,” said Gottsegen in the Sept. 19 statement. “The issue is not about noise or restricting a peaceful demonstration, which we fully support. The judge issued the order in response to the increasingly aggressive activities that began last week. This order is needed to prevent injury or worse from the increasingly dangerous activities of the picketers.”

That order, which was set to be argued in a Sept. 22 hearing before McCloskey, was criticized by the union, which decried it as an extreme, anti-labor tactic by hospital leadership to silence their voices.

“Rather than sit down with our union and negotiate a contract that is fair to essential workers and improve patient safety, RWJBarnabas’ corporate executives have rushed into court to seek an injunction to severely limit our right to make our voices heard,” said Danella, who added that the tactic had no place in a pro-labor state like New Jersey. “We repudiate it and call on RWJBarnabas’ corporate executives to put patient safety over profits.”

Danella insisted that with the overwhelming vote to continue the strike indefinitely, her members demonstrated that they will not be cowed. “We will not back down because safe staffing levels are essential to ensuring the safety of our patients – the people we go into work to care for every day,” she said.

“We understand and recognize the toll the pandemic took on our nurses and have worked aggressively to address staffing,” said Gottsegen on Aug. 28. “Despite a nationwide nursing shortage, in which New Jersey is facing 14,000 nurse vacancies, RWJUH has added 200 staff nurse positions since 2022 and has reduced its nurse vacancy rate to nearly half the national average. RWJUH nurses are already the highest paid in the state, and all offers by the hospital would have significantly elevated their status.”

She added that the hospital has said all along that no one benefits from a strike — least of all, the nurses. “RWJUH did everything it could to avoid a strike and urges the union to work with us to reach a resolution,” Gottsegen said. “This strike cannot go on forever.”

But there was still no end in sight at the time this story was published.

“Our day is coming. I’m going to tell you something right now. They may think they’re going to squeeze us because they cut our health care,” said New Jersey AFL-CIO President Charles Wowkanech at the post-Labor Day news conference and rally at the picket line. “They may think they’re going to squeeze us because they brought the scabs in for another 30 days. But they’re going to learn a lesson here in New Brunswick that they’ll never forget – that we’re going to beat them. We’re going to last one day longer.”