HealthAlliance, nurses reach tentative contract agreement
Leominster-based HealthAlliance Hospital and the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA) said they have reached a tentative three-year contract agreement that limits patient assignments and increases nurse staffing while boosting pay, according to the MNA.
HealthAlliance first announced the deal Monday night, though the UMass Memorial Health Care-owned hospital did not offer details of the agreement.
“HealthAlliance Hospital and (the MNA) have reached a tentative contractual agreement that balances the needs of our patients and the community. We maintain that addressing issues collaboratively and partnering with each other in the symbiotic relationship of hospital and nurse is the best path forward. At HealthAlliance Hospital, our number one goal is to continue to provide the safest, highest quality care to our patients and our community,” the HealthAlliance statement said.
A statement issued Tuesday by the MNA, the union representing the nurses, summarized highlights of the contract, which has yet to be ratified. The highlights include:
-Limiting nurses’ patient assignments to no more than five patients at a time;
-Adding nursing positions throughout the hospital, including those whose duty it will be to respond to urgent patient needs;
-Language that ensures that charge nurses will not carry patient assignments that prevent them from managing the needs of patients and nurses of the units they manage;
-Wage increases, including a 1-percent lump-sum bonus when the contract ratifies and a 2-percent wage increase over the life of the contract, and
-Protection of benefits for all nurses.
The agreement comes after HealthAlliance nurses voted last week to authorize a one-day strike after failing to come to terms with the hospital on a new contract. The nurses have picketed twice in the last year, following the expiration of their previous contract in May 2014. A major sticking point for the nurses has been nurse staffing levels, with the nurses arguing that the existing limit of six nurses to a patient is too high. Under state law, staffing ratios are only mandated in intensive care units, where each nurse is supposed to care for only one patient at a time.
Natalie M. Pereira, chairwoman of the MNA bargaining unit at HealthAlliance, said in the statement that the nurses “were willing to move in that direction if we had to.”
“Instead, we are proud to announce that … we were able to reach across the table, shake hands, and agree to new language that will give our patients long-term access to the quality of nursing care they have come to rely on from their community hospital,” Pereira said.
A patient assignment limit of five patients per nurse appears to be a compromise between the nurses and hospital management; the nurses had pushed for limiting nurses’ patient assignments to four patients at a time..
Ahead of last week’s strike vote, CEO Deborah Weymouth said the hospital had hoped to reach accord with the nurses during the next negotiating session, which took place yesterday. The first session took place last September, the MNA said Tuesday.
A date to ratify the agreement by the nurses’ union has yet to be determined, but the contract will expire two years from the date the contract is officially ratified, with the first year of the contract being retroactive.
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