Saint Vincent enacting security measures during strike

Photo | Grant Welker Saint Vincent Hospital nurses have been picketing outside the Worcester hospital during the strike, accompanied by uniformed police officers to ensure safety.

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By Grant Welker

Saint Vincent Hospital is putting new security measures in place during a nurses' strike that began Monday, including making all workers scan their employee badges before entering the building.

Those measures, outlined in a staff memo from Saint Vincent CEO Carolyn Jackson, come amid a tense standoff between the Worcester hospital's administration and its 800-nurse union, with a majority of nurses walking off the job Monday morning. Jackson addressed rumors of what she called sabotage and other security threats, and said there were no security risks to report.

Saint Vincent has made everyone scan their employee badge to get in the building to ensure no striking nurses enter, Jackson said in the memo. Because that's led to some back-ups in getting in the building for the start of shifts, the hospital opened two other basement level-entrances on Wednesday. Security is in place at every entrance.

Striking nurses have been walking around the hospital by at least the dozens from early mornings to late evenings since Monday, as well as periodically beforehand, as the hospital and the Massachusetts Nurses Association tried in vain to reach an agreement after 18 months of negotiations. Those picketing have caused some traffic to back up getting into and out of the hospital's main parking garage, something Jackson portrayed as largely unavoidable. The protesters are able to walk along the public sidewalk, and police officers at each entrance to ensure safety, she said.

"The police officers’ approach must appear as neutral as possible," Jackson said. "While to some of our staff they appear partial to the union, some union members have accused them of ‘class-breaking’ and protecting the hospital instead of them. I am in constant communication with the police captain who assures me that no preferential treatment will occur and that their only focus is to ensure everyone’s safety."

The nurses' union has been fighting largely for better nurse-to-patient staffing levels, something hospital leaders say is already safe and has been validated by an independent third party. Saint Vincent has called in hundreds of replacement nurses, along with more than 100 union nurses it says have remained on the job.

Striking nurses have been using a former Rollstone Bank & Trust location on East Central Street, about a block from the hospital as their so-called strike headquarters.