Nurses Rallied Outside Cooperman Barnabas in Livingston as Contract Talks Center on Staffing and Sick Leave
Members of the New Jersey Nurses Union, CWA Local 1091, rallied Wednesday outside the Livingston hospital where they work, pressing for safer nurse-to-patient staffing levels and health coverage in a new contract.
Nurses who work at Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston rallied outside the hospital on Wednesday, Oct. 28, as their union renegotiates its contract with the hospital, according to the New Jersey AFL-CIO's rally notice and the Montclair Girl's Essex County news roundup, both read by this desk. The roundup, citing NJ.com reporting, said the negotiations center on concerns about sick leave and staffing shortages.
The nurses are members of the New Jersey Nurses Union, CWA Local 1091. The AFL-CIO notice said the rally ran from 8 to 9:30 a.m. at the hospital, at 94 Old Short Hills Road in Livingston, and that the new contract the union is seeking would prioritize guidelines for safer nurse-to-patient staffing levels and healthcare coverage for nurses.
Cooperman Barnabas, in Livingston in Essex County, is one of the hospitals serving Newark-area patients, and staffing levels there affect how many patients each nurse cares for on a shift. The rally notice argued the hospital system can afford to hire enough staff to support the nurses who provide care every day; the hospital's position in the talks was not stated in the sources read this cycle, and this desk reports only what those sources confirm.
