An Erlanger nurse upset with working conditions and staff cutbacks is trying to unionize nurses at Chattanooga’s biggest hospital.
Jeff Holland, a licensed practical nurse at Erlanger for the past three years, said the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on staff has “created an environment where employees are working in fear and intimidation for their jobs.”
Holland said nurses are being asked to care for more patients even while the hospital has cut some benefits for nurses and other staff and dismissed some nurses unwilling to take on the bigger patient loads. Studies show that an understaffed and overworked nursing force decreases hospital efficiency and increases the risk of medical errors.
“Erlanger Hospital has created the perfect textbook conditions to validate the need for a union to protect its employees rights and benefits and in order to provide safer conditions for its patients in regards to nurse/patient ratios,” he said.
A Facebook page Holland created on June 1 to rally nurses to support the unionization effort, known as “Erlanger Pro Union,” has already got nearly 400 followers.