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Union healthcare workers plan protest outside Las Vegas hospital

Mountainview hospital.png
Posted at 5:35 AM, Jan 27, 2021
and last updated 2021-01-27 10:53:56-05

LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Las Vegas valley nurses who are members of healthcare union National Nurses United are planning a protest outside of a local hospital Wednesday morning.

NNU is calling Wednesday the National Day of Action. They’ll be demonstrating outside hospitals across the country, including MountainView Hospital off of North Tenaya Way.

RELATED: Vegas-area hospital staff holds walkout amid rising COVID cases

Union representatives claim corporate hospital chains like HCA, which owns MountainView Hospital, are putting profit over patients.

Nurses within the union say the company failed to take proper infection control measures by denying personal protective equipment, testing, contact tracing, sick leave and more.

MountainView hospital released the following statement in response to the planned protests:

"This labor union continues to use COVID-19 in an attempt to discredit and undermine the extensive work, planning and training we have done to ensure the delivery of high quality care during this pandemic. Despite the challenges hospitals across the country have faced during the past year, including surges, a global shortage of PPE and a nationwide nursing shortage, we are proud of our response and the significant resources we’ve deployed to help keep our colleagues safe and to care for our community.

Our frontline caregivers have shown unwavering commitment throughout the pandemic, and our efforts to protect them include universal masking, implemented before the CDC’s guidance, requiring all staff in all areas to wear masks. We also continue to protect our frontline colleagues through screening and testing, contact tracing and notification, the assignment of a PPE steward at each hospital who rounds regularly and helps ensure the proper use and fitting of protective equipment. Throughout the pandemic, we have supported our care teams through the use of our in-house nurse staffing agency and by continuing to actively recruit additional nurses.

No one takes the health and safety of our caregivers more seriously than we do. While this labor union continues to attack hospitals across the country, our focus continues to be on protecting our colleagues and caring for our community."

NNU has documented nearly 3,000 healthcare worker deaths in the US due to COVID-19. More than 300 of those were registered nurses.

Union healthcare workers previously held a protest outside of MountainView hospital in May 2020. At the time, they were reportedly facing mass pay cuts and layoffs.

RELATED: MountainView hospital responds to 'protest' at hospital

All of these protests come ahead of contract negotiations for 2021.

Demonstrations are set to get underway at 8 a.m.