Saint Agnes nurses strike over staffing and patient safety concerns
Saint Agnes nurses walked out July 6, saying too many patients, cut hours and unsafe floating put babies, children and new parents at risk.
At 900 S. Caton Ave., registered nurses at Ascension Saint Agnes Hospital walked off the job Monday in a one-day strike over staffing and patient safety at the West Baltimore hospital. The dispute has been building for more than two years, where nurses say the hospital has not done enough to keep patient assignments manageable or protect retention.
The National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United has been bargaining for a first contract since Jan. 18, 2024, and its central demand remains stronger staffing enforcement. Union leaders have pushed a “Patients First” staffing proposal during negotiations, arguing that nurses are being assigned too many patients at once to deliver the standard of care they were trained to provide.
Hours have been cut, and nurses have been floated into units such as postpartum and pediatrics even when they are not trained for those settings, raising concerns for babies, children, new parents and staff safety. The union says the strike is over patient safety and staff retention, not just wages or routine contract terms.
Saint Agnes remained open and fully operational during the strike and had a comprehensive contingency plan in place. The hospital secured a full complement of credentialed replacement registered nurses through a staffing agency that specializes in work stoppages, and any Saint Agnes nurse who wanted to work during the strike could do so.
Nurses first authorized a strike in May 2025 and then carried out a one-day walkout on July 24, 2025, the first time hospital nurses in Baltimore had ever gone on strike. U.S. Rep. Kweisi Mfume will join nurses at the morning rally.
Saint Agnes has served the greater Baltimore area for more than 150 years. Both sides have blamed the other for the slow pace of bargaining, with the union saying the hospital should put patients before profits and the hospital saying the union delayed formal responses and that the sides remained divided over union dues.
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