Sen.-elect Andy Kim joins Clara Maass nurses in fight for contract

Sen.-elect Andy Kim joined a group of nurses Tuesday to support their drawn-out fight for a contract with Clara Maass Medical Center in Belleville, noting that his mom was a nurse who spent her career working in New Jersey hospitals.

In the virtual meeting with nurses and union representatives, Kim recalled how his mom had few protections at work, and the aches she suffered after a long day at work. He called nursing a critical profession and said nurses must be treated with respect.

“Nurses like my mother, nurses that are here, you’re not asking for the moon. You’re asking to be treated with fairness, to be treated with respect, and that is something that you deserve,” said Kim, a Burlington County congressman who takes his seat in the Senate next week.

Clara Maass is part of the RWJ Barnabas Health network. About 500 Clara Maass nurses voted to unionize and join 1199SEIU in August 2022.

According to the nurses, since contract negotiations began in 2022, RWJ Barnabas Health officials have resisted agreeing to a pact. Nurses at Tuesday’s press conference said they’ve been met with months of bad-faith negotiations and unfair treatment in retaliation for their unionizing.

Hospital officials dispute this characterization, saying they met with the nurses in more than 30 negotiation sessions, according to a statement on the health network’s website.

“We have approached these negotiations in good faith, as we always do, given our history as a union-friendly organization, and see no reason why there has not already been an agreement,” the hospital’s statement reads.

The push for a new contract comes as some Clara Maass nurses seek to decertify the 2022 union drive, according to the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation.

Elizabeth Mendez Corbin, a registered nurse at Clara Maass, called the hospital “a gem in Belleville,” but said nurses unionized because they are not treated well by management.

“As we continue to serve the community and create an environment where our patients feel like they are at home, at their home, away from home, we feel so pressured and we feel so mistreated and undervalued by management that, you know, we felt that we had to stand up for ourselves,” Mendez Corbin said.

She said some nurses have been there for four decades and still grapple with little sick time off, low pay rates, and a lack of protection from exposure to illnesses.

Assemblywoman Carmen Theresa Morales (D-Essex), Charlene Walker of Faith in New Jersey, and Todd E. Vachon, director of Labor Education Action Research Network at Rutgers University, also joined the call.

Morales said the Belleville hospital is a “lifeline” for residents of Essex County. New Jersey is facing a nursing shortage, and she doesn’t want the quality of care to be impacted at Clara Maass, she said.

The standoff between Clara Maass nurses and management is the latest in a series of contract disputes between New Jersey hospitals and their workers. Last summer, about 1,700 nurses walked off the job at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick for four months, citing staffing concerns and pay as major issues. The parties resolved the matter in December after the union said it was assured of improved patient-to-nurse ratios.

A nurse strike was narrowly avoided at University Hospital in Newark in October following months of negotiations. The nurses ratified a three-year contract that includes improved patient-to-nurse ratios, a new wage scale, and a staffing committee to review compliance.

Kim said now is a “challenging time in America, a challenging time for families in terms of affordability.” He said that, as the father of two young boys, he worries about opportunities for future generations.

“Again, we’re not asking for the moon, but trying to make sure that that deal is done. So I continue to stand with you, try to get a deal as soon as possible — one that uplifts what you deserve and … deliver for your families,” he said.