Wilcox Medical Center nurses, management to resume negotiations after 3-day strike

The 159 nurses of Wilcox Medical Center have returned to work after a three-day strike scheduled to end early Friday morning.

With the strike in the rearview mirror, negotiations between Hawai‘i Nurses Association and Wilcox management are now set to resume. The two sides have been at odds since May 2024 over better staffing ratios of nurses to patients in the Wilcox medical-surgical unit.

Hawai‘i Nurses Association on Thursday touted the impact of its strike. Nurses from The Queen’s Medical Center, Straub Benioff Medical Center and Kapi‘olani Medical Center on O‘ahu visited the Kaua‘i picket line to support their fellow nurses, according to a union press release.

Wilcox nurses are urging their hospital to adopt staffing ratios now in place at hospitals on O‘ahu. They argue current staffing ratios in the Wilcox medical-surgical unit (six patients to a nurse) must be reduced to ensure patients receive an appropriate level of treatment.

“No one on Kaua‘i or anywhere else in our state should be left behind when it comes to the standard of care they receive when they go to the hospital,” said Rosalee Agas-Yuu, president of Hawai‘i Nurses Association.