Nashoba Valley nurses to picket as Steward talks continue
Citing pay that is below average for nurses at comparable hospitals and staffing procedures that make work hours unpredictable, members of the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA) at Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer will hold an informational picket outside the hospital this afternoon.
The nurses are in the middle of contract negotiations with Steward Health Care System, the Boston-based parent of the medical center. Negotiations began in November, and a federal mediator has been called in. It’s the first bargaining session since the nurses voted in July 2014 to unionize as members of the MNA.
Nurses look for pay parity, scheduling changes
According to Suzanne Fluet, co-chair of the MNA bargaining unit and a staff nurse at Nashoba Valley for six years, nurses have been dissatisfied with wages and benefits as well as scheduling procedures for several years. But she said the situation has deteriorated since Steward acquired the hospital from Nashville-based Essent Healthcare in 2011. She cited a market analysis performed by the MNA that found Nashoba Valley nurses are paid, on average, 35 percent less than nurses at comparable Massachusetts hospitals. The nurses have proposed a contract that would boost wages about 20 percent for nurses who receive benefits, and about 12 percent for those without benefits, or per diem nurses, between September 2015 and November 2017.
While Steward has proposed smaller increases, Fluet said it’s not enough to stabilize staffing at Nashoba Valley, which she said struggles to recruit and retain nurses who are more enticed to work at higher-paying hospitals.
Regarding staffing, Fluet said the hospital employs a policy that allows department heads to change a nurse’s shifts at any time. This means nurses may be called into work with little notice, making it difficult to plan child care and time off. Nurses are also often asked to work extra hours to cover shifts when employees call in sick, because there aren’t enough nurses available to cover staffing holes, Fluet said.
Today’s informational picket, to be held from 3:30 to 5 p.m., will serve to “let the public know that things aren’t going well with Steward,” Fluet said.
Steward offers 17-percent hike, hopes for resolution
Meanwhile, Steward spokeswoman Brooke Thurston countered by noting that Steward has offered to increase nurses’ pay an average of 17 percent over four years. She said the system is “proud to offer competitive pay and benefits” to its employees. She also added that Steward has proposed eliminating “’virtually all” scheduling procedures that the nurses have taken issue with. She declined to discuss what the sticking points are, but Fluet said the MNA and Steward are negotiating between 30 and 40 different contract elements.
“We hope to resolve this contract with the MNA soon so that we can focus on our work delivering care to Nashoba Valley residents,” Thurston said. She added the Steward recently settled multi-year contracts with MNA nurses at four other hospitals, including Good Samaritan Medical Center, Carney Hospital, Norwood Hospital and Saint Elizabeth’s Medical Center. And at Nashoba Valley, a contract between Steward and health care workers who are members of 1199SEIU (Service Employees Union International) was settled within the last week. That contract included a wage increase for those workers.
Hospital in the black
Nashoba Valley turned a profit of $3 million in 2014, and was in the black at the end of March, with a year-to-date profit of $500,000 , according to data from the Massachusetts Center for Health Information and Analysis. The MNA cited the hospital’s financial performance as evidence that the system can afford to increase wages.
As far as quality of care is concerned, Thurston said Nashoba Valley has continued to deliver high-quality care in recent years, despite nurses’ concerns. Most recently, the hospital was named to The Leapfrog Group’s list of top hospitals in recognition of its excellence in safety and quality. It was one of 94 hospitals nationwide to make the list.
Image source: Freedigitalphotos.net
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