HealthAlliance nurses hold strike vote
Registered nurses at HealthAlliance Hospital have scheduled a one-day strike vote on Wednesday as contract negotiations with the UMass Memorial Health Care-owned hospital have exceeded the one-year mark.
According to the statement from the Massachusetts Nurses Union, which represents the HealthAlliance nurses, the union is at odds with hospital management over staffing ratios. The MNA said Leominster nurses have met with management 17 times since May 2014 and the parties have failed to reach an agreement.
The nurses are now using a federal mediator to negotiate, and have staged two informational pickets, according to the MNA.
The strike vote, if passed, would allow the nurses' negotiating committee to authorize a one-day strike if they feel it’s necessary, but it doesn’t necessarily mean they will strike, the MNA said.
“No nurse inside Leominster Hospital wants to strike,” said Natalie M. Pereira, chairwoman of the MNA bargaining unit at HealthAlliance. “But we have spent countless hours with management over the last year and our concerns, our fears, are not being heard.”
Early on in the negotiations, the nurses had proposed limiting the number of patients a nurse can care for at once to four, down from the current limit of six, according to the MNA. Meanwhile, state legislation signed last year requires that nurses working in the intensive care unit can only care for one patient at a time.
HealthAlliance hopes to reach accord soon
Deborah Weymouth, President & CEO of HealthAlliance Hospital, responded in an e-mail statement Tuesday. Weymouth said hospital management hopes to reach a settlement with the MNA during the next negotiating session on June 29.
“Although this step of taking a strike vote is not unusual during collective bargaining, we hope to reach a mutually acceptable agreement that balances the needs of our community and our patients while acknowledging the critical role our nurses play in caring for our patients,” Weymouth wrote.
She also said the HealthAlliance’s goal “is to always provide the safest, highest quality care our community deserves and has come to expect from us.”
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