UnityPoint Health-Meriter Hospital has outside nurses working right know as those on staff go on strike.
This is the first strike at the Madison facility since nurses there unionized in 1978. A union official says Meriter management has failed to come to agreeable terms on issues involving wages and nurse and patient safety after more than 20 bargaining sessions. Hospital leaders have pushed back on claims of unsafe work conditions and have rejected raises of more than three-and-a-half percent, saying Meriter nurses are the highest-paid in Madison. The strike began yesterday and is supposed to run for five days total.
