UMass Memorial Nurses To Hold Strike Vote
In the latest move in a long-standing battle between UMass Memorial Medical Center and its nurses, the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA) said the nurses' union has scheduled a strike vote for Thursday.
According to the MNA, the more than 2,000 nurses who work at the Worcester hospital's two campuses will vote whether to authorize a one-day strike.
The vote will come after more than a year of negotiations between the medical center and nurses, in which the union said little progress has been made on issues including higher nurse staffing levels. The MNA said current levels are unsafe. Other issues include patient care conditions, a lack of resources, and patient loads nurses say are unmanageable following more than six layoffs over the past two years.
"No nurse wants to strike, but we have no other option as management continues to refuse to heed our concerns for the safety of our patients in the wake of unprecedented and unwarranted cuts to (registered nurses) staffing levels on both campuses of the UMass Memorial system," Margaret McLoughlin, a nurse in the intensive care unit and co-chair of the MNA's local bargaining unit, said in a statement. "The public needs to know that if UMass management has its way, there may not be a nurse at your bedside when you need one."
UMass Memorial, in a statement released late Tuesday afternoon by its spokesman, Robert Brogna, responded: "We are very disappointed to learn that the MNA has scheduled a strike authorization vote and that they have issued a press release with inaccurate and misleading statements. As the MNA and its national partner, the National Nurses United, have repeatedly demonstrated, rather than working cooperatively to address the profound changes occurring in health care, their preferred approach to negotiations is to use the threat of a strike and allegations of unsafe staffing as tools to achieve their bargaining objectives despite the impact that such tactics have on patients and employees."
Voting will take place from 6:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. and done by secret ballot at Coral Seafood restaurant at 225 Shrewsbury St.
The vote would give negotiating committees authorization to call a strike when it feels that one is necessary. The hospital would be given an official notice to strike 10 days prior to when it takes place.
Nurses at the University and Memorial campuses have been working without a contract since 2011 and 2012, respectively. The next negotiating session is scheduled for Friday with the University campus committee and April 17 with the Memorial/Hahnemann campus committee.
In its statement, UMass Memorial said that, over the last several months, it has negotiated "in good faith" with the MNA toward a contract resolution "that is in the best interests of our patients, our nurses and UMass Memorial Medical Center. We believe strongly the outcome should also be consistent with the shared sacrifices that the medical center's non-union managers and staff and five other labor unions representing thousands of employees have already agreed to."
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