Takeaway: Click here to sign a petition calling for the removal of RWJBarnabas Health CEO Mark Manigan from the Rutgers Board of Governors because of his union-busting tactics against nurses on strike for safe nurse-to-patient ratios.
Dear colleague,
The strike of 1,700 nurses at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital is now two months old, and management’s union-busting tactics have only become more brazen.
The central demand of the nurses, who are represented by United Steelworkers Local 4-200, is enforceable nurse-to-patient ratios that would guarantee quality care for every patient. This shouldbe the central concern of RWJBarnabas executives. Yet they have not only rejected the nurses’ proposals but retaliated against them, misrepresenting nurses in the media, intimidating those who speak out, and securing an injunction to limit picketing. By their own accounting, the RWJ bosses spent $72.6 millionon replacement nurses as of the end of last month—and they terminated health insurance for nurses on September 1.
RWJBarnabas executives work closely with the Rutgers administration, so the nurses’ fight is our fight, too. In fact, RWJBarnabas CEO and President Mark Manigan sits on the Rutgers Board of Governors! Striking nurses will be taking the “Solidarity Train” to Newark on Thursday, October 5, to join our action at the Board of Governors meeting (meet at the New Brunswick train station to catch the 10:18 a.m. train; click here to tell us you’re coming!)
Manigan shouldn’t be on a board that oversees our university. We can show our support for the nurses by calling on Governor Murphy to rescind Manigan’s appointment to the Board of Governors. Click here to add your name to the hundreds of students, nurses, and others who have already signed this petition.
If RWJ Barnabas gets away with resisting the nurses’ demand for safe staffing, the medical facilities many of us use across New Jersey will suffer. Please show your support for the nurses’ just demands by signing the petition.
In solidarity,
Rutgers AAUP-AFT, Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union, and AAUP-BHSNJ
Rutgers AAUP-AFT Facebook page: https://facebook.com/RUaaup/
Follow us on Twitter @ruaaup and Instagram @rutgersaaup
Freedom School YouTubeChannel: https://rutgersaaup.org/YouTube
Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/rutgersptlfc
Follow us on Twitter and Instagram: @ruaaup_ptl
Visit our website: https://rutgers-ptlfc.org/
AAUP-BHSNJ website: https://onerutgersfaculty.org/
AAUP-BHSNJ Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/RUaaupbhsnj