Striking nurses at Saint Vincent Hospital are scheduled to vote to ratify a tentative agreement to end a nine-month strike on Jan. 3, the Massachusetts Nurses Association announced on Tuesday morning.
In the meantime, the nurses agreed to stop picketing outside the hospital, which is owned by Tenet Healthcare Corp. of Texas, until the vote takes place.
The final vote count is set for 8:30 p.m. on the day of the vote, per the MNA. The vote will take place at the Teamsters Local 170 headquarters in Worcester.
Until then, the union is mailing copies of the full agreement to all nurses and plans to hold both remote and in-person meetings with its members to make sure they understand what they are voting on.
Both the MNA and Saint Vincent will continue to withhold details of the agreement until after the ratification vote.
One key agreement which has been shared is that striking nurses will be allowed to return to their previous positions. Uncertainty around that stipulation was the final sticking point after the last round of negotiations between Saint Vincent and the MNA broke down in August. At the same time, replacement nurses the hospital hired over the course of the strike will remain in their roles, as well.Â
The strike began on March 8 and lasted for 285 days as of Friday. The tentative agreement was reached after two weeks of discussions with federal mediators, culminating in an in-person session held Friday, mediated by U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh, former mayor of Boston.
