Labor organizers representing nurses at MetroHealth’s Behavioral Health Hospital flagged an urgent need for safety reforms at their facility during a public hearing before the Cuyahoga County Council on Tuesday night.

Ohio Nurses Association (ONA) member Ann Mueller called on MetroHealth System to agree to a fair contract with the recently-unionized staff to provide more workplace protections, including increasing staff.

"Nurses are asking for the ability to do their jobs without being physically assaulted, without being placed in dangerous situations, without being forced to manage patient mixes that are unsafe," she said.

Jeff Bettinger, a MetroHealth nurse and the vice president of the ONA, said the hospital's practice to house violent or sexually aggressive patients alongside nonvio

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