Nurses demand reinstatement of suspended union leader

Dozens of nurses rallied outside of Kings County Hospital in East Flatbush Brooklyn Thursday to call for the reinstatement of a nurse and union leader who was suspended by management earlier this month in what workers say is a clear case of union busting. Nurse Sarah Dowd told The Chief that she was suspended Oct. 9 for informing rank-and-file nurses of their rights – what Dowd argued is official union business as a local leader in the New York State Nurses Association. 

Elected vice president of the hospital's union executive committee by members last year as part of a reform slate, Dowd was suspended days after she spend one of her days off "rounding" – a term nurses use to describe reaching out to union members across the hospital to hear workers' concerns, inform them about their contract and discuss what the union's priorities should be. 

Rounding is a crucial practice that constitutes her official union business as workers' elected representative, Dowd insisted. There are many new nurses across the hospital whose rights to safe staffing levels under NYSNA's collective bargaining agreement with Health + Hospitals are often violated, Dowd explained, and if workers don't know of their rights under the contract, the union can't enforce it.  

"They don't want us to talk to each other," Dowd said of management. "It's very easy for management to violate workers' rights when [workers] don’t know what their rights are. Through rounding, we have a way to directly engage with people's rights and inform them. And management does not like that." 

Hospital leadership has long looked down on rounding and has punished or threatened other union leaders for the practice, Adam Marcus, a nurse and member of the hospital's union executive committee, told The Chief at the Thursday rally. Management once threatened to call the police on Marcus in reaction to his rounding, he said, and other union members have been disciplined for filing grievances or complaint forms. 

"This action is part of a pattern, but this is a huge inflection point and escalation of union busting," Marcus said of Dowd's suspension.  

"They don't want us to talk to each other," nurse Sarah Dowd, who was suspended without pay Oct. 9, said of management. "It's very easy for management to violate workers' rights when they don’t know what their rights are. Through rounding, we have a way to directly engage with people's rights and inform them. And management does not like that." 

Harper Freeman/ The Chief

Dowd said the suspension was "surreal." 

"I've been targeted by management before. We've all been targeted by management in different ways before," she added. "But this took it to a whole new level."   

The rally on Thursday drew dozens of nurses, supporters from other unions in the hospital and local elected officials. Workers and NYSNA demanded that Dowd be reinstated immediately. 

As a city worker, Dowd can be suspended without pay for up to 30 days, but if her suspension continues past that initial month, she must be paid while suspended.

Harper Freeman/ The Chief

As a city worker, Dowd can be suspended without pay for up to 30 days, but if her suspension continues past that initial month, she must be paid while suspended. So far, her suspension has lasted two weeks, and Dowd said she's received no indication of when she'll be allowed to work again. 

“We are talking about an experienced and dedicated nurse practitioner being suspended without pay for advocating for the tools needed to improve safety and patient care," NYSNA president Nancy Hagans said in a statement. "That is unacceptable, and we are so pleased that our Health + Hospitals frontline staff and Brooklyn community is protesting this egregious act of worker intimidation." 

A spokesperson for Health + Hospitals did not respond to a request for comment.