Saint Vincent nurses walk out as strike begins

A group of striking workers hold picket signs outside

Photo | Grant Welker Striking Saint Vincent Hospital workers during the 2021-2022 nurses strike

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By Grant Welker

Saint Vincent Hospital nurses walked off the job early Monday morning, starting a strike at a time when the Worcester hospital is working to overcome the coronavirus pandemic and staff a vaccination clinic but is facing charges it's not doing enough to prioritize patient care.

The hospital and the Massachusetts Nurses Association were locked into long-running negotiations that turned tense in recent days after the union gave a 10-day notice it planned to have nurses strike. Saint Vincent CEO Carolyn Jackson wrote to the MNA on Friday alleging union members said they'd publicly identify nurses that crossed the picket line in what she termed intimidation, and some nurses have shared harassing text messages. Some nurses have even resigned because of intimidation, she said.

The MNA, for its share, has said Saint Vincent has regularly had unsafe staffing levels, with what it says is more than 600 unsafe staffing reports, including more than 110 this year. It has also cited the financial surpluses for-profit hospital parent company, Tenet Healthcare, which had $414 million in profit on more than $4 billion in net operating revenue in the fourth quarter of 2020. Saint Vincent ended its most recent fiscal year with a nearly $74-million net surplus, a 14.2% profit margin, the state's Center for Health Information and Analysis reported last fall.

The strike comes amid a public health crisis that saw healthcare providers dealing with new workplace risks and anxieties, as well as a renewed public appreciation for their work. Saint Vincent nurses are staffing a COVID-19 vaccination site at Worcester State University, and its hospital leadership is helping to manage the site in a partnership with Commonwealth Medicine, an arm of UMass Medical School.

Saint Vincent has said it's been prepared for the strike with replacement nurses ready to fill in for needed shifts and to staff the vaccination site. Roughly 800 nurses at Saint Vincent are MNA members.

“This is a strike for the safety of our patients and our community” Marlena Pellegrino, a nurse and co-chair of the local bargaining unit of the MNA, said in a statement Monday morning.

“We are sad to see that Tenet holds so little value for our patients, yet we are resolved to do whatever it takes for as long as it take to protect our patients, as it is safer to strike now than allow Tenet to continue endangering our patients every day on every shift," she said. "As we begin our a strike, we are always ready to get back to the table to negotiate whenever Tenet is ready do the same.”

Jackson, the Saint Vincent CEO, said the hospital would continue to provide high-quality patient care during the strike.

“Quality is the cornerstone of everything we do here at Saint Vincent, and our community can be assured that we have taken the appropriate steps to ensure we will be able to remain focused on providing exceptional, safe, quality care to our patients despite the strike action being taken by the MNA,” Jackson said. “While we still remain hopeful that we can reach an agreement with the MNA for a new contract that is fair and beneficial to both parties, we won’t let anything distract us from our primary mission of doing what is best for our patients.”

Negotiations between the hospital and the MNA have spanned 18 months, with the union first voting in mid-February to plan a strike. A necessary 10-day notice of an intent to strike was given to the hospital two weeks later.

Saint Vincent's offer to the MNA as of March 1 included 1% pay increases for all workers in the 12 months starting this July 1, followed by 2% pay increases in each of the next three years, according to a copy of the proposal obtained by the Worcester Business Journal, the most recent offer circulated to employees. It also increases extra hourly pay nurses receive for night or on-call shifts.

The offer also includes standards on staffing ratios and for when nurses are shifted between units, referred to as floating. During the COVID-19 state of emergency, no nurse on a medical-surgical floor would be assigned more than four coronavirus patients, and no nurse on the progressive care unit, a level below intensive care, would have more than two such patients.

The hospital included some retroactive elements it said were only applicable if the contract were approved by Feb. 18, including 1% across-the-board pay increases dated back to July 1, 2020.

MNA nurses at Saint Vincent last went on strike in 2000.

The start of Monday's strike comes a few weeks after nurses at Milford Regional Medical Center and residents and fellows at UMass Medical School both voted to unionize.