Hospital Workers Strike Over Rising Workplace Violence

Nurses and other hospital employees on strike in states including Louisiana, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Michigan say they are demanding safer conditions after enduring repeated physical attacks from patients.

Crystal Dhooghe, an emergency room nurse at Henry Ford Genesys Hospital in Grand Blanc, Michigan, has been on the picket line since Labor Day of last year. "I've seen nurses get shoved, pushed, scratched. The biggest one is bitten," she said.

A Henry Ford spokesperson, Dana Jay, acknowledged violence against health care workers is a "national epidemic" and said the hospital has installed metal detectors, hired armed security officers trained to make misdemeanor arrests, and instituted de-escalation training. Jay said the strike is "simply an economic strike," not one over safety.

According to the most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics data, hospital workers are seven times as likely as the general working population to be injured on the job from violent acts.

At Butler Hospital, a private psychiatric facility in Providence, Rhode Island, mental health worker Andrew Kimball-Mirzaie was punched by a patient in February 2024, suffering a concussion and broken nose. The attack helped spur about 700 unionized Butler workers to strike for months last year, a walkout the Service Employees International Union 1199 New England called a win after the hospital agreed to wage increases and financial support for workers injured on the job.

Five months after that strike ended, a nurse supervisor at Butler called police after an unarmed patient assaulted staff in the emergency room, injuring two nurses, a security guard and a police officer, according to a police report. Butler's president and chief operating officer, Mary Marran, said the hospital meets regularly with staff to review safety measures.

The American Hospital Association has lobbied Congress to make assaulting health care workers a federal crime carrying up to 10 years in prison; at least 45 states, including Michigan and Rhode Island, already have similar laws. But workplace safety experts say there is no evidence such laws have reduced violence.

Many striking workers are instead demanding "safe staffing." The Joint Commission, which accredits more than 80% of U.S. hospitals, implemented national performance goals in January requiring proper staffing and training. Still, no federal law limits how many patients a nurse can be assigned, something National Nurses United has pushed for since 2018.