Carol Lemke, a member of the nurses union bargaining team at Meriter hospital in Madison, addresses nurses before they return to work Sunday morning after ratifying a new labor contract. (Photo by Erik Gunn/Wisconsin Examiner)

Nurses at Meriter hospital in Madison returned to work Sunday with a new contract at the end of a five-day strike, the first in the hospital’s history.

The agreement, reached Saturday and ratified by union members late Saturday night, for the first time gives nurses direct input on staffing concerns at the hospital, said Pat Raes, president of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Wisconsin and also a nurse at the hospital. Raes spoke at a short return-to-work rally Sunday morning outside the hospital.

While it falls short of establishing guaranteed ratios of patients to nurses, Raes said the new two-year contract  establishes a precedent by including  language about staffing concerns.

Wages will go up by 10% over two years, Raes said. She said the wage gain offered “meaningful raises” including 8% across the board and the other 2% for “step increases recognizing our experience and attracting new talent.” 

Raes said the contract also contains  “enforceable language” addressing the safety of health care staff and patients, including a commitment to install a metal detector by the end of the summer.

Staffing concerns and a push for the hospital to guarantee specific ratios of patients to nurses on duty were among the issues that the union stressed in contract negotiations and during the five-day walkout.

In public statements during the contract talks and strike, UnityPoint Health-Meriter officials said they shared the union’s concerns for safe staffing levels but opposed dictating ratios, claiming it would hinder  flexibility to respond to changing conditions.

Raes said the agreement builds on an existing system of committees in which nurses are in charge. “We really felt that was the format for having the staffing discussions and noting where those issues were,” she said Sunday.

The contract also commits the hospital to an annual discussion with the union on staffing concerns and issues, Raes said.

“This was a long and difficult negotiation,” Raes said. “We acknowledge Meriter’s management for ultimately coming to the table and reaching an agreement that prioritizes the needs of our patients and our dedicated professionals. Today, we turn the page.”

The final negotiating sessions were conducted with the aid of a mediator from the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission (WERC).

“We did not want to walk,” said bargaining committee member Carol Lemke, “but we felt it was the only thing we could do” to get staffing-related language in the contract.

In a statement distributed by UnityPoint Health-Meriter Saturday night after the agreement was announced, Sherry Casali, the hospital’s chief nursing officer, said, “We are grateful for the dedication and hard work of everyone involved in the negotiations. This tentative agreement represents meaningful progress toward a contract that recognizes the important contributions of our nurses.”

Raes said the union is now turning its attention to state legislation lawmakers have reported they are drafting that would establish a state mandate for the ratios of health care workers to patients in health care institutions. 

After five days of large throngs of picketing nurses, the crowd outside the hospital Sunday morning was smaller. The scene was cheerful and celebratory, accompanied by a sense of relief.

Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway turned out for the 6:30 a.m. return-to-work rally.

“I want to thank you for your courage because I know this wasn’t easy,” she told the nurses.

While she said she was grateful “mostly to the nurses,” Rhodes-Conway also said she was “grateful to management for coming to the table and finally understanding that we are stronger when we collaborate.”

The contract was ratified Saturday night by “a supermajority” of nurses, Raes said. Although the union didn’t release the official vote count, Raes said, “We had more people vote for this contract than we have ever had vote in the past.”

The union pushed to ensure the votes were cast and counted before midnight because the pay increases take effect with the start of the next pay period, Sunday morning.

The timing was also important for another reason. Meriter management told the union and employees that nurses on strike would be removed from the list of active employees effective Sunday, which would end their health insurance coverage.

The union wanted to complete the ratification process Saturday night “so there would not be any issues — there would not be any threat,” Raes said.

“We have nurses that are being treated for long-term health issues that cannot afford to lose their insurance who were out striking, and we have had other ones that felt they had to cross the picket line to not risk their health insurance,” Raes said.

She said she doesn’t expect divisions among members because of those choices, however. “Everybody, all the nurses, will continue to work together and have each other’s back on the floors,” Raes said, “because that is how we have to work.”

Striking nurses and supporters circle the UnityPoint Health-Meriter hospital in Madison on the first day of a five-day walkout Tuesday. (Photo by Erik Gunn/Wisconsin Examiner)

With a spirited rally, a picket line march around the building and a small brass band, nurses at UnityPoint Health-Meriter hospital in Madison launched a five-day walkout Tuesday, reiterating their demands for changes in safety practices, minimum ratios of nurses to patients and improved pay.

The strike — the first ever by nurses at Meriter hospital — is scheduled to run through Saturday. It follows the end of bargaining on Monday, May 19, when the nurses’ union bargaining team turned down the hospital management’s latest proposal.

Services Employees International Union (SEIU) Wisconsin and UnityPoint Health-Meriter have been in negotiations since earlier this year on a new contract covering about 950 nurses. The nurses’ most recent two-year agreement expired in late March and they have since been working without a contract.

The nurses’ contract demands include establishing required ratios of nurses to patients, improved safety for hospital employees and pay increases — particularly for senior nurses, according to union officials.

“Time and time again, Meriter’s management refused to meet us halfway,” said nurse Lindsey Miller, one of three bargaining team members who spoke at the strike’s opening-day rally Tuesday morning. “At our last bargaining session, it was management, not nurses, who walked away from the bargaining table.”

Miller said the most recent management officer included “an unacceptable raise that doesn’t cover the cost of living” and made “no progress” towards the nurses’ union’s demands for staffing commitments or security improvements.

“I am striking because I love working here,” said Madison Vander Hill, a birthing center nurse and one of six union speakers at the rally. “I love getting to walk alongside and care for families as they go through one of the most transformative experiences of their lives.”

Vander Hill said she and other nurses were striking “because we must see tangible change from management in order to ensure that safety and security are prioritized and the things we love about the work that we do are protected.”

Her coworker, Audrey Willems Van Dijk, said the nurses’ concerns extended to concerns for the hospital’s patients.

“We are fighting for every single person who walks through Meriter’s doors,” she said. “Yes, we deserve adequate compensation, but more than that, we deserve safety and security for ourselves and our community. We deserve respect.”

Dane County Executive Melissa Agard declared her support for the nurses and connected their dispute with former Gov. Scott Walker’s signature legislation after he took office in 2011 — Act 10, stripping most public workers of most union rights.

“It was his mission to crack the foundation of union rights in the state of Wisconsin. And that crack has continued not only in Wisconsin but across our nation, and you guys are here to say, ‘No more,’” Agard said.

As the strike got underway this week, Meriter told nurses that health benefits — including health insurance — would be cut off as of June 1 for nurses who do not report for their first scheduled shift during the strike this week.

A union spokesperson said the effect of the order would be to cut off benefits for strikers for the month of June if the two sides don’t reach a tentative agreement on Thursday, when their next bargaining session is scheduled.

Meriter spokesperson Nicole Aimone confirmed in an email message Tuesday that nurses who do not report for their first shift during the strike will be put on “inactive status” through Sunday, June 1, with their benefits ending as of that date.

Nurses whose benefits are cut off would have to use the federal law known as COBRA to maintain their coverage, paying for their insurance out of pocket. The law, enacted in the 1980s, enables fired or laid-off workers to maintain their employer’s health insurance temporarily at their own cost.

“They will have the ability to re-enroll once they are placed back into active employee status,” Aimone said.

The union has filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board over the hospital’s action.

“It is outrageous and it is disgusting,” said Ben Wikler, the outgoing chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, addressing the rally. Wikler went on to lead hundreds of sign-carrying nurses and supporters in chanting, “Union busting is disgusting!”

“When management says you’ll lose your health insurance if you insist that there [should be] enough nurses on the floor to make sure that everyone is taken care of — it is disgusting,” Wikler said.

He described the dispute in the larger context of President Donald Trump’s return to the White House.

“They think that the Trump administration and the National Labor Relations Board that this administration has gotten is going to turn its back on working people,” Wikler said.

“They will still have to come back to the negotiating table and they will have to do what’s right, because you are building the power to make them do what’s right,” he added.

The hospital is continuing to operate during the strike. Aimone said that the hospital has contracted with an outside agency for replacement “travel nurses” to support ongoing patient care.

She said she did not have information on the cost for the contract nurses who are filling in during the walkout.

SEIU Wisconsin and UnityPoint Health-Meriter hospital will meet May 29 to resume contract talks covering 950 nurses. But the hospital management and the union have given conflicting accounts about plans for earlier negotiations. (Wisconsin Examiner photo)

SEIU Wisconsin and Meriter hospital management confirmed Wednesday plans to meet on Thursday, May 29 to resume negotiation on a new contract covering about 950 nurses.

Talks ended Monday without an agreement, and the union said it would go forward on Tuesday, May 27, with a five-day strike.

On Wednesday, however, the two parties gave contradictory accounts of the conclusion of their talks and the prospect of further negotiations before the walkout begins.

In Meriter’s initial statement on Tuesday after the strike was announced, the hospital reported that a bargaining session was scheduled for Monday, May 26.

In a statement Wednesday, however, the union bargaining committee said they had never scheduled talks for that day.

UnityPoint Health-Meriter issued an updated statement Wednesday asserting that “SEIU Wisconsin notified Meriter on Tuesday that they are no longer available to meet on May 26 and are now offering May 29 as their first available date to resume negotiations.”

The management statement quoted Meriter’s vice president of human resources Shana Wuebben: “SEIU Wisconsin has declined the bargaining session previously set for Monday, May 26 and has rescheduled bargaining sessions to Thursday, May 29 near the end of the 5-day strike period,” Wuebben said.

The bargaining committee flatly disputed the characterization that the Monday date had been agreed to.

“There was no agreement between the parties to meet on Monday May 26,” the committee’s statement said.

In the hospital’s statement, Wuebben said, “Meriter is listening. We have made great strides in our proposals and tentative agreements to date.  And we are ready to continue bargaining.”  

The union, however, charged that management — not the union — was responsible for ending the talks Monday.

“At our last bargaining session on Monday May 19, the union bargaining committee offered to stay as late as needed to reach an agreement,” the bargaining committee statement said.

“The union was clear that management needed to make movement on our core priorities — priorities we have been crystal clear about since Day 1 — in order to avoid a strike,” the committee said. “Instead of engaging in discussions about our priority issues, management chose to end the bargaining session.”

Wuebben reiterated that Meriter’s management negotiators are “ready to return to the bargaining table at any time.” 

The union statement said bargaining team members are also ready to return to the table, but said they would need to see evidence that management was willing to move on their issues relating to staffing ratios, stronger hospital security and compensation.

“The union bargaining team has consistently made themselves available to meet with Meriter management, and we will continue to do so,” the union statement said. “If Meriter management would commit to make meaningful movement on our priority issues before the strike, we would consider scheduling a meeting with them before Tuesday May 27.”

Pat Raes, a Meriter hospital nurse and president of SEIU Wisconsin, addresses union nurses and their supporters at a rally April 8, 2025. On Tuesday the union announced it would strike starting May 27. (Photo by Erik Gunn/Wisconsin Examiner)

Nurses at Madison’s Meriter hospital plan to walk off the job for five days starting Tuesday, May 27, after negotiations on a new union contract ended Monday night without an agreement.

The hospital management and Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Wisconsin, which represents about 950 nurses at the hospital, are divided over pay, security provisions and whether the hospital should commit to specific ratios of how many patients are under a nurse’s care.

If the strike goes forward, it is scheduled to last for five days, with union members returning on Sunday, June 1.

Update: In a statement Tuesday, Meriter said there was a bargaining session scheduled for Monday, May 26, the day before the strike is scheduled to start. An SEIU Wisconsin spokesperson said Wednesday that the union never agreed to that session, and that a bargaining date has been scheduled for Thursday, May 29.

In order to allow hospitals to secure temporary replacement staff or move patients, federal law requires hospital workers to give at least 10 days notice before striking, which SEIU Wisconsin gave May 9. The union also opted for a fixed duration for the walkout.

“We don’t take going on strike lightly, but we truly feel in order to make the changes that are necessary we’re willing to fight to make things safe for our patients,” said Pat Raes, a long-time Meriter nurse and also president of SEIU Wisconsin, in an interview May 14.

“We’ve called a five-day strike because our goal isn’t to walk away from the table — it’s to make UnityPoint Meriter finally hear the voices of nurses,” Raes said Tuesday. “This timeline reflects the urgency of our demands while giving the hospital every opportunity to return to negotiations in good faith.”

She said the five-day window was chosen to match the standard five-day contract used by health care staffing agencies, such as would be called to cover the striking nurses, “to send a strong, clear message without unnecessary disruption to patient care. We hope Meriter uses these five days to come back with real solutions.”

The hospital, UnityPoint Health-Meriter, is one of 17 regional hospitals in the large, Iowa-centered nonprofit health care chain, UnityPoint Health.   

“We’ve been in a union environment for decades and know that a strike could happen. We always work very, very hard to avoid that,” said Sherry Casali, market chief nursing officer for the hospital, in a statement released to the press Tuesday. “I think both parties would prefer not to have a strike.”

The hospital statement said Meriter’s management was disappointed there were not more talks prior to Monday. “Meriter leadership will remain available throughout this week to return to the table and we encourage SEIU to do the same,” the statement said.

In past years, the union and the hospital have worked with federal mediators during contract talks. This year federal mediation wasn’t available after President Donald Trump issued an executive order in March gutting the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS), nursesan independent federal agency.

Although that order was blocked by a federal judge May 6, the union and hospital turned instead to the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission.

Defined patient-nurse ratios have been a longtime goal for union nurses. California and Massachusetts both have state laws setting certain minimum ratios, according to  NurseJournal.org. A limited number of other states require hospitals to publish their nurse-to-staff ratios.

“The more patients you take care of once you get above that ratio puts every patient that you’re taking care of at higher risk for complications and higher risk for mortality,” Raes said.

The statement the hospital issued Tuesday acknowledged that “both parties agree on the importance of safe and effective staffing,” but said that mandated ratios “limit flexibility” and could make it more difficult “to adjust to patient needs and staff availability in real time.”

The hospital statement said the facility relies on its charge nurses, who “are key to staffing and have clear avenues to discuss any patient care needs throughout each shift.”

There are limits to flexibility, however, according to the members of the nursing staff. Flexibility “sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t,” said Amanda Husk, a postpartum nurse. “We just know there’s always a base need for nurses to make sure patients are safe.”

Husk said ensuring that the ratio of nurses is always sufficient “also prevents burnout and turnover of nurses. That’s a big deal.”

Raes said nurses also wanted stronger security measures — including metal detectors — in light of violent incidents at hospitals across the country that have led to injuries or deaths of health care workers.

The hospital’s statement said its security staff regularly updates security measures and plans additional unspecified changes this summer.

On pay, Raes said that while nurses in their first 12 years have had significant raises, those at the upper end of the scale for pay and longevity don’t see their pay keeping up.

The shift to a 401(k) retirement plan from a standard pension has diminished the incentive for more experienced nurses to stick around, said Raes, while the original pension plan encouraged longevity on the job.

Meriter’s statement said the hospital’s most recent pay offer would keep its nurses “some of the best-paid nurses in Wisconsin” as well as in Madison. 

This report was updated Wednesday with new information about when upcoming bargaining is to take place.