Saint Vincent nurses fight for new contract
Ongoing negotiations address salary, staffing
Despite high hopes for change when Vanguard Health Systems bought Saint Vincent Hospital from Tenet Healthcare Corp. in 2004, a glum outlook hangs over the staff of 700 registered nurses at the 348 bed facility in Worcester.
Citing what they describe as severe understaffing issues and a non-competitive salary compared to other regional institutions, the nursing staff has been negotiating their contract with Vanguard for over a year, and notions of a strike linger should negotiations stall.
Saint V’s nursing staff previously went on a 49-day strike in 2001 against Tenet for similar issues. At this time, a strike vote has not been set.
In recent weeks, the staff has picketed for safer staffing levels and a fair contract. Nurses with the hospital claim that the level of staffing is reaching a dangerous low, effectively putting the lives of the patients at risk. "Nurses are going to other facilities or different departments," says Carolyn Moore, an RN and chair of the nurses’ bargaining unit. "They feel like their license is jeopardized."
The hospital disagrees. Dennis Irish, director of Government and Community Relations, says the hospital is still one of the safest institutions in the region, citing favorable results in its recent Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) accreditation. "We would respectfully disagree that there are any patient safety issues at the hospital," says Irish. The nurses "are raising these issues in the context of negotiations."
Negotiations for a new contract have been fruitless, says Marie Ritacco, an RN at Saint Vincent. "Everything we’ve said in the last three years has fallen on deaf ears," she says, adding that the only noticeable step taken by hospital management has been to hire a consultant to address the situation.
Saint Vincent’s Irish says that while the negotiations have required some "give and take," the process thus far has been favorable, saying that a Dec. 13 bargaining session went well. "We were encouraged by progress that was made, but apparently the nurses were not," he says.
On top of the alleged nursing shortages, the staff is also fighting for higher wages. According to David Schildmeier, director of public communications for the Massachusetts Nurses Association, nurses at Saint Vincent are paid $42 an hour, just under $10 less than what nurses at neighboring UMass are now making. The pay itself is only a portion of a larger issue of attracting and retaining talented nurses. Moore says that nurses are using Saint Vincent as a training ground to get their feet wet, and then moving on to institutions offering higher pay and better benefits. "We hire a new nurse, they get a few years of experience, and leave for UMass," she says.
However, Irish says the hospital is above the state averages in terms of retainment, and below the average when it comes to vacancy. "The nurses allege that this salary discrepancy affects our ability to recruit and retain nurses – that’s simply not true," says Irish, pointing to the majority of Saint Vincent nurses being with the hospital for an average of 25 years.
Ritacco agrees that many of the nurses do want to remain with Saint Vincent, and that she hopes to finish her career there. However, an agreeable contract for both sides will have to occur to prevent a walkout.
"Every day that passes without a new contract, the likelihood for a strike increases," says Ritacco.
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