Members of the University Medical Center nurses union have announced that they are planning a two-day strike in the week before New Orleans hosts the 2025 Super Bowl. The strike, which will be the nurses’ second since voting to unionize in late 2023, follows nearly a year of as-yet unsuccessful negotiations toward a collective bargaining agreement with LCMC Health, the private nonprofit group that manages the publicly owned hospital.
Kisha Montes, a behavioral health nurse and a member of the union’s bargaining team, said an “overwhelming percentage” of the nurses voted in favor of the strike. It will take place on Feb. 5 and Feb. 6, just as tens of thousands of visitors arrive for the big game on Feb. 9.
“The process is just taking so long, and a lot of people are getting frustrated,” Montes said of the bargaining process.
The nurses began contract negotiations with LCMC last March. The nurses hope to secure better pay, improved staffing and improved safety for both patients and hospital staff. Nurses said they have made some progress, but LCMC’s bargaining team has blocked some key proposals, including an improved emergency preparedness protocol. UMC received a majority of the victims of the New Years Day attack on Bourbon Street, which nurses later described as “overwhelming” and “emotional” to work through.
LCMC Health did not respond to questions about the nurses’ claims by publication time.
UMC will hire temporary nurses to work during the strike, according to The Times-Picayune. Though the strike is only officially for two days, fill-in nurses will remain at UMC through Super Bowl Sunday, leaving regular nursing staff without income for five days.
“We are willing to lose part of our salary to let them know that this is not a game,” Montes said. “We are working people. We are professionals, and we expect them to act like professionals as well.”