Sen. Bernie Sanders pauses while speaking during a presidential campaign event at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H.
AP File Photo
Unionized registered nurses at Geisinger Wyoming Valley braved the cold during their five-day strike in February.
Times Leader file photo
Sen. Bernie Sanders posted the following statement, in which he showed his support for Geisinger’s union nurses, on X and Facebook.
Screenshot from Facebook
Senator Bernie Sanders has signaled his support on social media for Geisinger’s union nurses.
“It is unconscionable that Geisinger nurses are not guaranteed quality health care by their employer,” Sanders’ social media post read. “Geisinger: Do the right thing. Get back to the table and give your nurses the same quality of care that they provide to patients.”
Sanders, an independent from Vermont who caucuses with Senate Democrats, released a statement on X on Friday, March 14. The X post was screenshotted and shared on Sanders’ official Facebook account, where it has garnered over 12,000 reactions and nearly 600 comments since Friday.
In addition to his show of support on social media, Sanders is also said to have met with the nurses’ contract bargaining team over Zoom.
“Elected officials from both parties have been meeting with us and our union in recent weeks. Senator Bernie Sanders’ statement on Facebook and X came following a meeting he had a few weeks ago with our nurse contract bargaining team,” Kelly Loiselle, pediatric nurse at Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center, said in a statement of her own. “Republicans, independents and Democrats have walked the picket line with us and publicly expressed their support. This is just the beginning of our massive campaign to hold Geisinger and Kaiser-Risant accountable to our community, which will include large actions at the Danville headquarters, national advertising, and more strikes if necessary. We will do whatever it takes to make corporate giants Geisinger and Kaiser-Risant put our patients and our community first.”
In her statement, Loiselle emphasized the structural issues the nurses’ have have repeatedly claimed are present at Geisinger facilities since they began their collective bargaining negotiations with Geisinger in November of last year. The nurses were subsequently on strike from Feb. 17 to Feb. 22 and have authorized a second strike “if needed.”
“The more local, state and federal leaders learn about how Geisinger is operating its hospitals, its self-created staffing crisis and the way it is treating nurses, the more they are concerned. Geisinger, which is both our employer and our insurance company, has raised health care costs for nurses by 38% over the past two years,” Loiselle claimed. “That has left many nurses who provide healthcare for our community unable to afford that same care for ourselves and our children. After months of negotiations, the company is still refusing to negotiate a contract that would protect nurses from similarly large increases in the future.
“We are also concerned that Geisinger is losing its commitment to local-based care following its purchase by Kaiser-Risant last year. Geisinger Wyoming Valley has a nurse vacancy rate three times greater than the national average and more than 300 unfilled nursing positions. Instead of addressing the staffing shortage crisis, Geisinger has become over-reliant on out-of-town, temporary nurses. It now pays travel nurses about double what it pays local, permanent nurses from our community, which is hurting recruitment and retention of the nursing staff that we need.”
Loiselle’s statement ended with a claim of inequality, a sentiment clearly in line with Sanders’ ongoing “Fighting Oligarchy” tour.
“While nurses, our families and our community struggle, Geisinger and Kaiser-Risant have been paying their executives millions.”
Geisinger response
In response to the attention from Sanders, Geisinger issued the following statement:
“Geisinger’s ongoing labor negotiation with Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is specific to registered nurses at Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center and its Luzerne County campuses. Further, Geisinger operates independently of Risant Health in most aspects of daily operations, including staffing and compensation and benefits to union and non-union employees. During collective bargaining, Geisinger has only its own resources available for negotiation.
“We value the commitment of our SEIU-represented registered nurses to our community and respect their right to collectively bargain. Our offers have been comprehensive, competitive and sustainable. They reflect a significant increase from the compensation and benefits package that SEIU agreed to and celebrated as historic in 2022. We remain committed to reaching a mutually agreeable labor contract.”
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