By Thane Grauel

WESTPORT — The COVID-19 pandemic has led to more people suffering mental-health issues and a shortage of healthcare workers.

That combination of factors has prompted workers at St. Vincent’s Behavioral Health facility on Long Lots Road to threaten to strike next week.

At a Tuesday morning rally outside the mental healthcare facility, nurses and other union workers said they may walk off the job because of double shifts they frequently are required to work.

The workers said they often learn while on their first daily shift that management requires them to work a second shift, or face disciplinary action. That causes problems with childcare and a host of other family related problems, they said.

The workers are represented by the Connecticut Health Care Association District 1199, NUHHCE, AFSCME.

“Hartford Health, be fair to those that care,” said Susan Barna, a worker at the Westport facility formerly known as Hall-Brooke Hospital and now owned by Hartford HealthCare, which owns St. Vincent’s here and the affiliated hospital in Bridgeport.

Dave Hannon, president of the union, said that at 7 a.m. Tuesday the union filed an 8(g) notice, which is a provision in the National Labor Relations Act requiring 10 days notice of a strike.

“They intend to strike, to walk out of the facility, on Dec. 17, starting at 6 a.m.” he said. “We don’t take this action lightly. This is not an easy decision that these workers made. But it seems like the only decision that was left.”

“It is fully within their power to avert this strike,” Hannon said. “It’s our intention to negotiate tomorrow until we reach an agreement. It remains to be seen if it’s the hospital’s intention to do so as well.”

“When you come in for your scheduled shift, you can be told that you have to stay for a second one,” Palmer LeValle, a St. Vincent’s psychiatric nurse, said, “which could potentially double your shift at the last minute.”

“This is very stressful,” she said, especially for people with infants or young children at home, having to scramble for childcare.

William M. Jennings, president of St. Vincent’s Medical Center, said in an emailed statement: “We have always believed, and continue to believe, the best path forward for everyone is to work together and find common ground. That is why we have not once walked away from the negotiating table.

“Our latest offer includes a significant increase in wages for both the nurses and service and maintenance worker bargaining units, and the hospital has already agreed to several operational changes proposed by the union,” Jennings added. “We look forward to continuing good-faith negotiations with the expectation the parties can reach a mutually satisfactory compromise in the near future.”

But state Sen. Bob Duff, D-Norwalk, who appeared at the press conference in support of the union, said: “We talk about nurses, and those who work in the healthcare field over the last year and a half to two years, and raise them up and say thank you, and say how much we value them.

“This is one day,” Duff said, “and another day we’re disrespecting our workers by having them work mandatory overtime, where they’re putting their families at risk, not providing good communications to them, and not signing a contract that should be signed.”

In the event of a strike, the Jennings statement says, “We will take appropriate steps to ensure that access to care will continue without disruption for our patients and the community in the unfortunate event of a strike. 

“Regardless of a strike, St. Vincent’s Behavioral Health in Westport, and all services, will remain open and accessible to the community.”