[[{“value”:”Nurses on strike at Butler Hospital (Carlos B)
Butler Workers Lead a Historic Fight for Mental Health and Dignity
By Amanda A and Carlos B
PROVIDENCE, RI – On May 15, 2025, nearly 800 healthcare workers at Butler Hospital, a major psychiatric hospital serving the region, launched an open-ended unfair labor practice (ULP) strike. Represented by SEIU 1199 New England, these workers include mental health staff, food service workers, nurses, call center staff, therapists, clerical staff, and more. The strike was authorized by an overwhelming majority: 91% of the workers at Butler participated in the strike authorization vote. 99% of the voting membership voted in favor to authorize the strike.
Butler Hospital is owned by Care New England. Care New England employs over 8,000 health care workers across Rhode Island. They own several major healthcare institutions including Women and Infants Hospital and Kent Hospital.
A major demand of the striking workers is that all Butler workers should be making a living wage. According to SEIU 1199 New England, “nearly 60% of Butler staff surveyed said they struggled to afford the cost of food and housing. A new report indicates that a Rhode Islander must earn $25.31 to afford a studio apartment, $27.25 for a one bedroom and $33.20 for a two bedroom apartment.” The lack of living wages has contributed to short staffing and high turn over, leading to a significant increase to workplace violence.
The Union’s Defense Against Care New England’s Onslaught
Care New England CEOs have responded with provocations of all kinds—millions of dollars spent to hire scabs, threats to permanently replace workers, cancellation of health insurance for all striking workers, and lies and smears in the media. Care New England has spent well above the amount that it would cost to meet the Butler worker’s demands in union-busting efforts, even hiring Littler Mendelson, a major union-busting firm, to assist them in negotiations.
Ben D, a member of the bargaining committee, spoke with Working Mass about the response from Care New England. “Management told us right off the bat that they have the money to agree to the initial contract proposals, they just don’t think it’s in their interest,” Ben reported. He continued:
So then, why are they doing this? They are trying to break the union. They think the union is too strong, we are too united, we are too powerful, we had too much of a say in trying to make our hospital better – and they don’t want it to be like that. They want to be able to make top down decisions and that is it. They just want to break us and it’s had the opposite effect.
Each attack has been defended against by rank-and-file organizing. When Care New England cancelled health insurance, the union assisted members in signing up for state health insurance. When Care New England declared they were seeking to permanently replace Butler workers, the striking workers became eligible for unemployment benefits – which plays a crucial role for workers surviving, paying for essentials like groceries and rent, when full-time workers lose their jobs.
When Care New England started to spread lies about negotiations, the union opened up bargaining sessions so that all members are invited to attend and see for themselves what the negotiations were. Ben D described the strategy:
The hospital put out there that the bargaining committee was not being transparent with negotiations so that was the point when we said, well everyone can come for themselves and be part of the bargaining committee and see for themselves that we are a transparent organization, we are a democratic organization, this is how it works, so we invited everyone to come in.
Butler workers have kept the pressure up throughout the strike. They have done informational pickets at other Care New England facilities, picketed board members, a “Tax the Rich” rally on May 29, and a 30-hour occupation outside Care New England headquarters 30 days into the strike.
Patients, Organizers, and Other Unions
The workers’ march on the Capitol made the demand for a fair contract visible. Labor unions, politicians and the larger Providence community have responded with firm support to the union. SEIU 1199 workers have opened a microphone to the community. Patients and former patients continue to speak out in support of the strike, emphasizing the vital role these workers play in their recovery and community well-being.
The strike has received strong solidarity on the picket line from other unions and community organizations. These include the Rhode Island Democratic Socialists of America, Providence General Assembly, and Food Not Bombs. Teamsters and the UFCW have also supported the strike, with UFCW union workers at Seven Stars Bakery organizing donations of bread loaves and pastries in solidarity with their fellow workers. Striking Butler workers returned that solidarity by mobilizing in support of Seven Stars café workers organizing around workplace safety.
Rhode Island DSA, in particular, has helped to raise morale by showing up to the picket line, hosting karaoke on the line, preparing and cooking food, and uplifting the strike through social media and neighborhood flyering. And in response to mass community support, the Providence City Council invited Butler workers and SEIU 1199 RI to lead the Providence Pride Parade on June 21, 2025. Hundreds of healthcare workers in purple kicked off the parade and thousands lining the streets met them with cheers.
The Strike as Teacher
The strike is unfolding in the broader context of the Trump administration’s sweeping reforms to government spending—targeting public health and education—to slash expenses wherever possible, particularly in areas supporting workers’ well-being. Most notably, the Trump Administration has decimated Medicaid with a “Big Beautiful Bill” that threatens the closure of over 300 hospitals nationwide, including one rural hospital in Massachusetts, while providing free ammunition to hospital bosses to squeeze their workers for more capital. While hospital executives increase their own bloated salaries, SEIU 1199 RI members march and demand adequate state funding for healthcare in Rhode Island.
Striking healthcare workers at Butler Hospital show us what fighting back against profit-driven attacks on the mental health services can look like. The strike is, as always, worker education. Strikes expose the real power of workers not just as individuals completing tasks, but as the engine that keeps entire industries running. That’s the real “damage” this strike delivers—not to patients, but to the power of bosses who rely on undervalued, underpaid labor to generate profits.
The ripple effects are already being felt. Nurses at Rhode Island Hospital and Hasbro Children’s Hospital voted in June 2025 to authorize a strike and reached a tentative agreement days after delivering the threat; The nurses, represented by the United Nurses and Allied Professionals (UNAP) Local 5098, were able to push Rhode Island to increase wages from Brown University Health’s original “final offer.”
Nurses aren’t alone; over 900 Providence-based interns, residents, and fellows joined the Committee of Residents and Interns (CIR), joining 43,000 other workers across the country organized in their union, in January 2025. The newly unionized workers work at several different hospitals in the city and just began bargaining for their first contract.
As socialists, we understand that the example set by the Butler workers is contagious. This has already become one of the longest strikes in New England’s recent history and its outcome will have lasting consequences—for workers in the same industry and far beyond Rhode Island.
To support the strike, join their picket line which runs daily from 6am-7pm outside Butler Hospital at 345 Blackstone Blvd, Providence, RI 02906. Follow and share their social media coverage, with a focus on Facebook and Instagram.
Amanda A is a rank and file member of the Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA) and member of Rhode Island DSA.
Carlos B is an immigrant kitchen worker and socialist militant in the New England labor movement.
The post Rhode Island’s Longest Healthcare Strike appeared first on Working Mass.
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