Committee for Recognition of Nursing Achievement (CRONA), which represents 2,700 nurses at Stanford Hospital and Clinics and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, released a press release Tuesday condemning a decision by the hospitals to impose a new employment contract on the nurses.

“Stanford and Lucile Packard Hospitals have decided to put corporate needs and greed ahead of the welfare of their nurses, doctors and patients by imposing these new working conditions,” Lorie Johnson, president of CRONA, wrote in the press release. “We believe the imposition of these provisions is a declaration of war on nurses and could put patient care at risk at both hospitals.”

This development continues a yearlong contract dispute between CRONA and the hospitals, in which both sides were unable to agree on a new contract to replace the one that expired last March. The debate extended through late summer, when the two sides reached a deadlock that required the involvement of a federal mediator.

Though the nurses voted on a tentative agreement in December, the majority of nurses rejected the agreement, prompting CRONA to inform the hospitals that it would recommend a new tentative agreement if the proposal were changed. In response, the hospitals declared an “impasse” and implemented this current contract.

CRONA will be meeting with its member nurses this week to outline its next steps, the press release said.

— Ivy Nguyen