A chorus of honking cars during Thursday’s morning rush hour on Caton Avenue signaled support for registered nurses at Baltimore’s Ascension Saint Agnes Hospital, who staged a one-day strike to protest staffing shortages, concerns over patient safety and stalled contract negotiations.
Hundreds of nurses represented by National Nurses United — the largest union and professional association of registered nurses in the U.S. — walked off the job at 7 a.m. and will remain off duty until 6:59 a.m. Friday.
“We hope to accomplish that the management here in St. Agnes will hear the nurses cry,” said Robin Buckner, a clinical nurse at the hospital who participated in the strike. “We are out here to get better staffing for our patients so we can give them the best care possible.”
The strike follows a nearly unanimous authorization vote in May and 18 months of failed negotiations for a first union contract. Nurses say the hospital’s chronic understaffing and unsafe working conditions are jeopardizing patient outcomes and nurse well-being.
Saint Agnes Medical Center remained open and fully operational Thursday during the strike, the hospital said.
According to hospital officials, nearly 70% of scheduled union-represented nurses reported for work, and agency staff were brought in to maintain patient care. The hospital said care remained uninterrupted and safe throughout the day.
“We look forward to the union returning their focus to negotiations so we can continue to bargain in good faith and advocate for a contract that allows our nurses to have the choice on whether or not to be dues-paying union members, ensures safe staffing and provides market competitive wages,” a hospital spokesperson said in a statement to The Baltimore Sun.
The union has alleged that the hospital routinely uses the practice of “floating” — reassigning nurses to units outside their area of specialty — without sufficient training or oversight. Nurses argue this compromises patient care and creates unnecessary risks.
Union leaders are demanding that Ascension Saint Agnes commit to enforceable nurse-to-patient staffing ratios, restrict unsafe floating practices, and ensure that charge nurses are available as clinical resources rather than being assigned their patient loads.
“We want nurses to work in areas that they’re familiar with working and not getting sent to places they’re not trained to be,” Buckner said. “We also want to have a limited number of patients per nurse.”
Nick Stewart, who is running for Baltimore County executive, attended the rally and expressed concern about people being able to afford the necessities in a tough economic environment. He said first responders can rarely afford to live in the communities they serve.
“What they’re asking for here is not a lot,” Stewart, a Democrat, said. “They’re asking for safety, that they can actually deliver high-quality care to patients so they’re not put in compromising positions, and they’re asking for basic things like cost of living and increases and so forth that just allow them to continue to tread water.”
He pointed out the importance of Saint Agnes to the area.
“It represents a critical component of the health care assets that we have in our ecosystem, that we should be building off … but we need to square away things like this for that brand to ultimately flourish,” Stewart said.
The staffing crisis has taken a toll — the union reports that more than 10% of nurses have left the hospital since April.
Although Ascension has said it is working to improve conditions, a spokesperson noted that in May, the hospital implemented an average 9% pay increase for full- and part-time nurses, calling it “the right thing to do” amid ongoing negotiations.
The nurses unionized in 2023, becoming the first hospital-based RNs in Baltimore to do so.
Have a news tip? Contact Todd Karpovich at tkarpovich@baltsun.com or on X as @ToddKarpovich.
