The union representing nurses at the Iowa City-based University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics is suing the state's Board of Regents for allegedly not honoring their contract, according to KCRG.
The union alleges that earlier this year it agreed on a new contract with the hospital, with union members ratifying it, but that the hospital later informed them that there was never a formal agreement. The contract was negotiated at the same time the Iowa legislature was passing a bill restricting collective bargaining rights to basic wages and not benefits.
Nurses at the hospital say it is difficult to fill full-time positions with so much uncertainty surrounding their contract, and that relying on travel nurses signed to temporary contracts is not a sustainable solution.
"It's a real struggle to try and persuade people to come work there and stay there if you don't know what your future is gonna look like, so we've been kind of using this band-aid of travel nurses, and we love our travel nurses but we've been relying on them so heavily now," Britney Bowen, a nurse and union negotiator, told KCRG.
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