well still no progress on the RWJ University Hospital nurses strike after more than 10 hours of negotiations last night union leaders for the 1700 striking nurses say they were at the bargaining table until 2 a.m. with Hospital officials and a federal mediator marking day 80 since the workers walked off the job August 4th demanding better pay and mandatory nurse-to-patient Staffing ratios both management and the nurses Union say they didn't think the work stoppage would get this contentious the hospital has agreed to salary increases but repeatedly insists it has some of the best Staffing ratios Statewide as the strike continues nurses remain on the picket line with no pay or health benefits drawing National support from Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders who's called for a field hearing this Friday October 27th in New Brunswick of the Senate health education labor and pensions committee Sanders says he's in investigating this strike as part of a rising tide of Labor actions in the healthcare industry and he joins me now Senator Sanders thank you for joining me you've been involved in labor disputes nationally some much larger others smaller why come to New Jersey and bring your senate committee here for a field hearing well I will tell you why and that is because what's going on in Robert W Johnson is not just the New Jersey issue it in fact is a national issue and we got to get to the root cause of it we have a major crisis in this country in terms of health care Workforce we don't have enough doctors we don't have enough Mental Health Specialists we don't have enough dentists and the crisis is especially acute for nurses we have a major major nursing shortage so we need to bring more young nurses into the profession but we need to retain the nurses that we have unfortunately nurses are leaving the Prof profession in droves because of poor working conditions I have talked to the nurses at Robert Wood Johnson and what they tell me is they love their jobs they want to take good care of their patients but they're unable to do so because they just lack the staffings to provide the proper care so what's going on in RWJ is an issue for the whole country it's something the committee has got to explore you've invited leadership from Robert Wood Johnson to attend the hearing do you expect them to show up and to be able to get to some of these roote issues my understanding is that Mr migan will be there that is my understanding and I'm very appreciative of that uh one of the issues one of the questions that I will ask him is not just that a couple of years ago they could afford at Barnabas to provide a CEO with $17 million in salary but they are now spending as I understand that $87 million in a few month period on traveling nurses so they're bringing in nurses from all over at Great expense and yet they have not yet been able to reach an agreement with their local nurses off for decent nurse patient ratio so that's an issue I think we want to explore yeah it's the pay and the the safe patient ratios but will these labor disputes Senator not keep happening again and again if the very just structure of the US Health Care system isn't addressed I mean we have this fee for service model where essentially it's much more profitable for these hospitals to hire Physicians than it is to hire nurses look you're touching on a an issue dear to my heart so let me just say this in my view the current American Health Care system is broken it is dysfunctional we are spending twice as much per capita on healthcare $113,000 for every man woman and child we're spending twice as much as any other country on Earth and yet we have 87 million uninsured underinsured we pay the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs and we have a major Workforce crisis so if your question is do we need fundamental reforms of the American Health Care system so that it is not designed simply to make huge profits for the insurance companies and the drug companies and the hospitals yes we do should this be left though to Federal mediators there's been criticism I don't have to tell you from your own colleagues about per perhaps uh exerting your influence as chairman of this committee to get involved in what is essentially a private labor dispute no this is not a private labor dispute this is a national issue we have a nursing crisis All Over America we are losing nurses because these nurses are dedicated they want to do their jobs they want to take care of their patients they're unable to do so we've got to get a handle on it and right now at RWJ you have 1 00 nurses some of them have worked there for years Tears in their eyes when they talk to me about wanting to do their job well unable to do so so this is a national issue and I it's taking place right now uh in New Brunswick but it is an issue that we have got to deal with that makes me think of what recently happened with uh the Kaiser healthc care workers that's we're talking you know thousands more 85,000 workers but do you draw those similarities that was a three-day strike the nurses are going on nearly three months now um without healthc care as well um as you say which speaks to a much larger crisis in the country look all over this country uh you have workers who are tired of corporate greed they're tired of the people on top becoming much richer while they are falling further and further behind what makes what's going on in New Brunswick right now particularly interesting is what the nurses are fighting for is the right to do their jobs well it breaks their hearts I'm I've never seen Tears in their eyes when they talk about not being able to take care of their patients the way they were trained to do and the way they want to do and I think it's really incredibly courageous for them to stand up go out on strike not something that's easy in order to defend the rights of their patients to get quality healthare Before I Let You Go very quickly uh I know you have called on uh your colleague Senator Bob Menendez to resign and you have said publicly that a senate ethics uh committee investigation should ensue if he does not will you pursue that it does not look like he is stepping down well again we'll take one step at a time I have respect for Senator Menendez but I think under the current situation he should resign Senator Bernie Sanders thank you so much for your time sir thank you very much [Music]