Saint Vincent alleges racism, bullying, intimidation by union

Photo | Grant Welker Nurses picketing outside Saint Vincent Hospital in Worcester

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By Grant Welker

Union nurses on strike at Saint Vincent Hospital have been intimidating other employees, patients and support staff – including a racist incident – the hospital is alleging as a strike moves into its second week.

The union denied most of the allegations, calling them isolated incidents that have been addressed and saying they distracted from the larger issue behind the strike: nurse-to-patient ratios. Most of the allegations were said to be untrue, including one involving a racial slur.

The Worcester hospital told the Massachusetts Nurses Association in a letter Sunday nurses were yelling "I know where you park" to nurse managers as they drove into the employee parking garage and texting pictures of wounds from burner phones to nurses as a way to call them scabs for working during the strike.

Bright flashlights were shown into the eyes of employees entering the garage Sunday morning, the hospital said, and the hotel where some travel nurses were staying was called with threatening messages made to the hotel manager.

That behavior was directed at more than employees, the hospital said. In one case, a boy and his father arriving for a coronavirus test before a sleep study were told they'd die if they entered. In another, racist remarks were allegedly yelled at a delivery driver pulling into the loading dock. The hospital did not provide further details on the incidents.

"The incidents that I outlined above and countless others serve no positive purpose and should stop immediately," Saint Vincent CEO Carolyn Jackson said in a letter to the MNA. "They should be strongly – and unanimously – condemned. In addition to having a negative impact on the bargaining process, they risk jeopardizing the safety of our staff and the patients we serve."

Jackson said in a staff memo on Sunday that she previously wrote to the nurses union about the same type of behavior.

"In recent days, the antagonistic behavior of MNA leadership and some of the striking nurses has reached new and unacceptable heights," she said. "On March 5th I sent the MNA a letter detailing incidents of bullying and intimidation by union representatives and members and reiterating the need for those actions to cease immediately."

"I was encouraged when they responded to my letter saying that none of the bullying allegations were true and guaranteeing that 'no harm would come' to nurses who chose to cross the picket line. Unfortunately, but unsurprisingly, that has not been the case."

David Schildmeier, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Nurses Association, acknowledged what he called some isolated incidents that have been addressed. Some threatening Facebook messages made privately were also taken down when they were brought to the union's attention, he said.

"Tensions always run high during a strike, and we're educating folks, and they get it," Schildmeier said.

Schildmeier also called Saint Vincent's allegations a distraction from what he called the real issue: that the hospital's nurse-to-patient staffing ratio was dangerously low enough that the 800-member union began its strike March 8.

"To us, that's threatening," Schildmeier said of staffing levels that could put nurses' licensure at risk. "If staffing wasn't the issue, we wouldn't be on strike."

CORRECTION: This story has been updated to more accurately reflect the Massachusetts Nurses Assocation's response to Saint Vincent Hospital's allegations.