UMass Memorial nurses to head back to work after 6-hour strike
A six-hour strike at the University campus of UMass Memorial Health Care Inc. ended just before noon today when the hospital and the Masssachusetts Nurses Association finally came to agreement on a 3-year work contract, subject to union ratification, after more than 10 months of contentious negotiations.
This morning, the 850 nurses at UMass Memorial Health Care’s University campus hit the picket lines at 6 a.m. despite earlier news that they’d reached a verbal agreement with management three hours earlier, on specifics of a work contract.
The change in direction – after the earlier news of an accord -- was so abrupt that a television news reporter commented that he’d had to change the content of his live standup report at 6 a.m. as nurses filed out of the University campus and established their picket line.
The talks had broken down when the verbal agreement was put in writing, according to both a hospital spokeswoman and nurses on the picket line.
UMass Memorial spokesman Mark Shelton says the agreement, reached with the help of a federal mediator, now needs ratification by the membership of the MNA. The points of contention that have since been resolved are: Timing of salary increases; and the provision of both a defined benefit and a defined contribution pension plan for all new nurses who are members of the bargaining unit, effective Jan. 1, 2007.
UMass Memorial managers are now working on a transition plan to have the MNA nurses return to work throughout as their regular shifts start, and the replacement nurses will relinquish their patient care duties as the shifts open up.
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