Strike By Nurses: Perceptions of Colleagues Coping With the Fallout

Abstract

The strike weapon has been a troublesome concept for nurses ever since they adopted collective bargaining in the 1940s. They have usually exercised their right to strike with reluctance. Studies of nurses' attitudes towards the strike as a bargaining tactic generally reveal deep divisions among them as to whether it is right for members of an essential service and a caring profession to refuse to work. The illegal strike by members of the United Nurses of Alberta (UNA) in 1988 provided the stimulus to study the experiences and perceptions of nurses who continued to work throughout the 19-day labour dispute. The strike affected 98 hospitals and nursing homes, and thus placed the major responsibility for critical care and emergency services on the hospital in which this study took place; nurses there were represented by a different union. As the only tertiary care centre in the province to remain in full operation during the strike, it received many transfer patients, as well as new cases of trauma and life-threatening conditions. Indeed, maternity cases rose by 350% during this period. Measures of severity of illness and workload rose significantly and put the hospital under great operational strain. The steady influx of seriously ill patients necessitated rapid organizational responses not unlike those required when dealing with disasters. The study objective was to discover how nurses coped with extraordinary workloads, how they felt about this particular strike, and about nurses' strikes in general. There have been five province-wide strikes in Canada since the one reported in this paper, and the provision of essential and emergency services during such disputes is a matter of public interest and professional concern. The experiences of nurses in coping with the workload is reported elsewhere (Hibberd & Norris, In press). The focus of this paper is on the nurses' perceptions of a strike by colleagues in another union, and on strikes by nurses in general.