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July 13, 2017

Hospital assn. calls Tufts strike "harmful"

Photo | Courtesy of Massachusetts Nurses Association Massachusetts Nurses Association members are pictured at the National Registered Nurses Day of Action in 2009.

As union members and lawmakers joined striking nurses in Boston, a hospital trade group on Wednesday ripped the nurses action at Tufts Medical Center, saying the nurses had put their interests over patients.

“The decision by the MNA nurses’ union at Tufts Medical Center to strike is unfortunate and misguided," the Massachusetts Hospital Association said in a statement. "The strike harms the best interests of everyone involved – patients, nurses, and the hospital. And the action could have been prevented."

The hospital association alleged the union timed the strike to be "most harmful to the hospital."

"The targeted action will ultimately harm the nurses themselves and cost millions that will be drawn from the funding the hospital had available for nurses' wage increases," the association said. "Even the disingenuous labeling of the strike as a one-day action was a strong-armed negotiating tactic since the union knew that any replacement nurses must be hired for a minimum number of days."

The association said the Tufts had contracted and trained replacement nurses to ensure that patient care continued.

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