To All Local Unions:

On Sept. 14, 2024, Hawai'i Pacific Health (HPH)/Kapi'olani Medical Center for Women and Children locked out 600 highly skilled local nurses until they unconditionally accept the hospital's contract demands.

This lockout is about retaliating and breaking the nurses resolve to advocate for their patients. HPH is willing to compromise patient care to do it.

Today, is National Voter Registration Day. With so much at stake, it has never been more important to register to vote, make a plan to vote and then VOTE, either by mail or in person.

WHO: The Hawai’i Nurses’ Association/OPEIU Local 50 represents about 600 nurses at Kapi’olani Medical Center in Honolulu.

WHAT: 600 nurses are beginning a one-day ULP strike in response to hospital management’s retaliation, intimidation and coercion of nurses for reporting unsafe staffing levels and a failure to bargain in good faith. Kapi’olani management threatened to begin an illegal lockout after 96 percent of nurses at the hospital voted to strike. Nurses at Kapi’olani have worked since Nov. 2023 without a union contract.

WHEN: Friday, Sept. 13 at 6:30 am local time until 8:30 pm.

WHERE: Kapi’olani Medical Center at 1319 Punahou Street in Honolulu, Hawai’i.

WHY: Nurses at Kapi’olani are on ULP strike – the second this year – to call attention to their employer’s retaliation, intimidation and coercive tactics at the bargaining table and on the hospital floor. Management’s failure to bargain in good faith jeopardizes the well-being of nurses, patients and their communities.

Click here to view the petition to the state’s governor, Josh Green, asking him to help end the lockout.

Interview opportunities available. 

• WMD Flyer Spanish(.pdf, 377.04 KB) 
• WMD Flyer English(.pdf, 554.04 KB) 
• WMD Spanish Poster(.pdf, 1.3 MB) 
• WMD English Poster(.pdf, 1.31 MB) 

Applications for the 2024 OPEIU educational scholarships are due by March 29. All members are encouraged to apply. Full details, rules and applications can be found at OPEIU.org under the Member Resources tab, as well as on the OPEIU app.

Scholarship opportunities include the Howard Coughlin Memorial Scholarship for OPEIU members and dependents, and the John Kelly Labor Studies Scholarship for OPEIU members who are pursuing an undergraduate or graduate degree in labor studies, industrial relations and union leadership and administration.