unions

Strikes are caused by management. Any strike can be averted by agreeing to the worker's demands.

Strikes can be equally prevented by compelling the employer to agree to the worker's demands.

Banning strikes is the anti-worker way of trying to keep essential services running. It's the worst way, but it's the one governments always choose.

In that instance, I would imagine it would be less of a "fuck it this is the final straw EVERYONE STRIKE" and more of a "things haven't changed, we will be striking in XX days" and the hospital has XX days to hire Temps

It's not like the medical staff want patients to suffer.

But knowing the medical field the way I do, they count on that. The people who run hospitals know the staff have emotions and still have the capacity to feel guilt, and use that to pressure them into accepting infinitely more bullshit than any other field.

If you were behind the counter at a restaurant, and a diner smeared literal shit in your face while screaming at you for trying to kill their dining partner, do you think you would be expected to "just handle it" then get yourself cleaned up because you still have 11 hours left of "absolutely awake" time followed by a few hours of "maybe I'll be able to get some sleep" and another 12-16 hours of work, would you just take it? Would you keep going to work? Now how about if you spent years studying to get that job, have tons of money put into it, and are faced with "deal with it or find another career"

There isn't an easy solution, but the solution certainly isn't "keep letting hospitals treat staff like indentured servants", not that you are suggesting it is, I just mean something needs to change.

It would be best in the nurses case if there were sypathy strikes by unions in other sectors. Oh wouldn't you know it? Also illegal.

When it comes to hospitals the strikes are scheduled and the hospital is required to hire strike nurses until the strike is over because legally they can't just not have nurses. Strike nurses are just travel nurses but to work durring a strike they generally charge several times what a regular nurse gets paid and the hospital doesn't get a choice because they need nurses. My mom used to be a travel nurse and I remember that when working as a strike nurse she often made over $1000 per day plus travel expenses and housing paid for. I think the most she ever made was $2800 in a single work shift but that was at a hospital in a fairly wealthy area.

So yes hospitals do just hire other nurses to cover the strike but they usually don't want to do that for long because it's incredibly expensive compared to just caving to the strike demands.