Swedish nurses’ strike over, but some might not be able to return to work yet

A strike by Swedish nurses and caregivers ended Friday morning, but some employees might not be able to return to work right away.

Swedish nurses remain concerned over ‘significant’ staffing problems

Some employees said they received text messages and calls from Swedish managers telling them not to come in for their shifts.

“You are scheduled for 1/31 but you are not needed to work,” a text provided to MyNorthwest reads.

In response to the strike, Swedish flew in replacement staff from across the country to work until their contract ends Sunday — which is likely the reason why local staff are being told not to come back to work yet.

A post on the healthcare union’s Facebook page — SEIU 1199NW — urged workers to still report to their jobs, even if their Swedish managers told them not to come in.

“The people that won’t go back to work, we are going to support them as well as we can. As I said, this isn’t legal to do a lockout, and our union is going to support us. We want to get back to our patients,” said radiologist Michael Scott.

Caregivers are expected to be called back to their jobs over the next few days as work becomes available. But in the meantime, some may be going without a paycheck.

Two emergency rooms that were closed, Swedish’s Ballard and Redmond locations, reopened at 8 a.m. The Ballard labor and delivery will reopen at 9 a.m., and other units that were consolidated or moved will reopen Sunday morning.

On Tuesday, thousands of nurses at Swedish Healthcare went on strike for the first time in its history.

The members of SEIU 1199 said Swedish put profits over patients.

Swedish Medical Center nurses demand ‘equity and inclusion’

“We’re hoping the public can see what a difference we’re trying to make. Again, this isn’t about wages, this is about patient safety,” said nurse Amanda Bingham as she held a picket sign.

Nurses wanted Swedish to improve the nurse-patient ratio.

Two emergency rooms closed while 8,000 nurses and hospital staff walked off the job.

During the strike, some nurses and hospital workers did cross the picket line.

While Swedish wouldn’t say exactly how many nurses it brought in to replace striking nurses, it told KIRO 7 it was around 2,000.

MyNorthwest staff contributed to this report