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Interesting.

I wonder if the UAB medical system is using travel nurses to make up for extra demand, and the normal nurses don’t like the travel nurse pay?

In part, probably so.
But the bigger picture is this is yet another example of incompetent medical administration. We've seen it throughout the pandemic.

E.g., We've seen OLOL administrators shutting down beds and laying off staff, then panicking when there is a universally predicted COVID surge and they are caught short-handed with too few beds.

But do they take blame? Nope! Not a chance. Instead they blame the public for "not getting vaccinated." The percent vaxxed was well known for months. The oncoming surge was a well known probability for months. But somehow hospital administrators being caught woefully unprepared is the public's fault.

The result is ER and ICU staffs are left in the lurch to work their butts off. Other areas such as ORs are seeing relatively light duty. That disparity could be addressed, but it isn't. In addition to pressures of the heavy workload itself, understaffing in the face of infectious disease puts impacted staff (and their families at home) at increased exposure risk. It is an added stress. Again, the impact is highly disproportionate among facility staff.

Instead of organizing and reassigning personnel, or hiring extra staff for the ED and ICUs, administrators sit in their C-suite and direct affected personnel to "Deal With It" via zoom calls. "Suck it up" as a message from someone making 10-fold to 100-fold a nurses pay, yet not willing to come within two floors of a COVID patient, is not exactly the stuff of workplace inspiration.

ER and ICU crews "Deal With It" as underworked groups elsewhere in the facility draw the same hourly checks to make tik-tok videos. Meanwhile, administrators pat themselves on the back for a job well done, looking forward to their end of year bonus.

Sucks for morale. Doesn't excuse the walkout. Just giving lay-of-the-land.