Longmont United nurses begin negotiations after nearly three years

LONGMONT — After nearly 35 months, nurses at Longmont United Hospital have finally reached the bargaining table.

Members of the National Nurses United union delivered their opening statements Monday to the bargaining team for CommonSpirit Health, the newly named hospital system that replaced Centura when that company split into two parts.

The parties have been engaged in a particularly vitriolic dispute since April 2021, when the nurses at the Longmont community hospital first set out to seek union representation. At every step along the way, the hospital system sought to prevent the formation, but in the end, nurses voted 94-93 to form the union.

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The National Labor Relations Board got involved. It sought and received a temporary injunction preventing CommonSpirit from leaving Longmont nurses out of systemwide pay increases. That case is under appeal at the U.S. Court of Appeals, and briefs are to be filed by March 25.

Monday, according to contract bargainer Dinorah Williams, several nurses delivered a petition to the chief nursing officer’s office signed by 89 of the 101 nurses on staff at Longmont United. Williams said that at the time of the union election, Longmont United had about 250 nurses, but those numbers have declined through resignations; traveling and agency nurses fill in to provide patient care.

Recruiting and retaining qualified nurses are among the union’s demands as negotiations begin.

“I’ve been involved in efforts to organize since the very beginning,” said Kris Kloster, a LUH nurse and a member of the bargaining team. “During that time, we’ve seen the majority of our nursing staff leave. We’re being staffed with travelers, agency nurses and people not committed to the community.

“Our goal is to retain and recruit excellent nurses who are committed to Longmont,” she told BizWest. “I think all of us who made statements (Monday) have been nurses long enough that it’s clear to us that things are not the way they used to be.”

She said the staffing matrix has been changed with fewer nurses working. Ancillary staff have been laid off.

“Every time I’d go to work, I’d be made to do more with less. It’s soul crushing when you leave feeling like you’re not able to do your best,” she said.

Among the items on the nurses’ bargaining platform are:

• A safe and enforceable staffing plan based on patient acuity.
• A fair and enforceable on-call and call-off procedure.
• Incentives for nurses to pick up additional shifts.
• Increased wages and a fair and equitable pay system to recruit and retain experienced RNs.
• Meal and break relief.
• Maintain and expand health and retirement benefits.
• Pay and benefits that are competitive with other hospital systems in the region.
• A safe environment for patients, starting with staffing levels appropriate for the care needed.

A message left Tuesday with CommonSpirit about its perspective on the opening of negotiations was not returned. 

The next negotiating session will be March 13-14, Williams said.

Despite the length of time that it took to get into bargaining, Kloster said the nurses are optimistic. 

“Every decision has gone in our favor. We have to be optimistic. It was an incredible culture when I started in 2001, and I want to bring that back,” she said.