Butler Hospital unionized frontline staff vote to authorize strike
Apr 25, 2025 | 3:28 pm ET
Description
Unionized Butler Hospital workers are seen during an informational picket outside the psychiatric hospital on Blackstone Boulevard in Providence on Monday, April 21, 2025. (Photo by Alexander Castro/Rhode Island Current)
In the absence of a new contract, Butler Hospital’s unionized workers are gearing up for a possible strike, union officials announced Friday morning.
About 90% of the members of SEIU 1199NE, the union representing about 800 positions at the Providence psychiatric hospital, voted to OK the strike.
Butler Hospital frontline caregivers working without contract want more safety precautions
Because of vacancies in union roles, there are 704 union members now working at Butler. Of those members, 643 voted, with only six voting against the strike. The vote began on Monday and ended Thursday evening.
A date has not been set for a strike as of Friday. Union members include professional and clerical staff, registered nurses, mental health workers, and housekeeping and dietary staff. All four SEIU 1119 contracts with Butler expired on March 31.
“We are dealing with record numbers of assaults in the hospital and too many of us are afraid just to go to work,” Dan Camp, who works in behavioral health call intake at Butler, said in a statement Friday. “For the last month we have put forward specific proposals to improve workplace safety and the quality and consistency of care for our patients but management refuses to take our concerns seriously.”
The vote comes four days after hundreds of Butler workers paraded up and down Blackstone Boulevard to protest wages and working conditions at the hospital, where SEIU 1199NE says the rate of assaults on workers increased 41% from 2022 through 2024.
“Low wages are the key reason staffing is so short and turnover is so high,” Camp continued. “We have Butler staff who are struggling to feed their family and even living out of their cars —- when people are worried about their basic needs it reduces the quality of the care and support we can provide.”
There were 108 open union positions at the hospital as of Friday. In the most recent contract, which expired March 31, mental health workers started at $18.27 an hour. Hourly wages for housekeeping and dietary staff started at $16.08, clerical workers started at $19.76, and professional staff and registered nurses started at $32.50 an hour.
Raina C. Smith, a spokesperson for Butler’s parent company Care New England, responded to the news via email Friday afternoon.
“It is very disappointing that 1199SEIU asks its members to vote on a potential strike,” Smith wrote. “This is unnecessary and distracting, given that we are currently in active negotiations with a session planned for next week.”
“Butler Hospital’s team is focused on reaching an agreement at the table, and we hope the union can focus its attention on the same goal,” Smith continued.
The hospital and the union will next meet at the bargaining table on Wednesday, April 29.
Care New England responds
Raina C. Smith, a spokesperson for Care New England supplied an additional statement Friday afternoon. An abbreviated version is included below.
“Butler Hospital remains committed to reaching a fair agreement with SEIU1199 that supports our staff, enhances patient care, and ensures a safe and respectful workplace for all…
Healthcare workers are five times more likely to experience workplace violence than employees in other industries, but we have no tolerance for it at Butler Hospital.
To ensure the safety of our workforce, with input from leadership and staff, we have led a series of initiatives to improve safety measures at our hospital.
One critical initiative is the Health & Safety Committee, whose membership is comprised of front-line staff, security personnel, and hospital leadership. This committee meets monthly and reviews critical incidents and guides proactive strategies to reduce risks.
Additional safety and support measures at Butler include:
- Mandatory training for all employees on workplace violence awareness and reporting
- Annual specialized training for patient-facing staff in de-escalation, restraint techniques, and more
- Improved physical security upgrades, communication protocols, and signage
- Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) peer support for employees involved in threatening or violent events
- Full compliance with Rhode Island’s workplace safety legislation (enacted in 2022)
Reporting allows Butler to study each situation and identify opportunities to improve safety. Butler has taken steps to encourage and simplify the reporting of workplace violence incidents, and Care New England is currently preparing a systemwide employee survey to gather input for further improvement.
The hospital has also proposed the introduction of a Workplace Violence Prevention Taskforce as part of the Health & Safety Committee to focus specifically on reviewing current protocols, training, and reporting procedures related to workplace violence, while also working to identify systemic and department-level opportunities for safety improvement.
In addition, Butler is committed to providing a competitive total rewards package to its workforce. Butler’s 4/15/25 economic proposal increases wages an average of 3.4% – 8.5% per year, with total wage increases of between 15.6% and 32% over the life of the proposed (4) year contract.”
This article was updated with an additional statement from Care New England.
Providence, RI