St. Vincent nurses authorize strike
Demands for pay parity with UMass a sticking point
A new level of urgency has been injected into the contract dispute between nearly 700 unionized nurses and St. Vincent Hospital, after 433 of those nurses authorized a strike during a vote last month.
Although the vote does not ensure a strike, it gives union leaders the authority to call one on their members’ behalf, a move that would require at least a 10-day notice to the hospital. Union leaders have not said whether they intend to follow through with a strike. That union – the Massachusetts Nurses Association – continues to meet with hospital negotiators as well as a federal mediator who joined the negotiations in November, after the talks broke down.
The nurses’ contract expired December 31, 2005, and negotiations over a new one have been stalled over several key provisions, says Carolyn Moore, a member of the bargaining unit. The provisions that have caused the most friction: The top-end wage, and the date nurses would be eligible to receive that wage. The union wants nurses with 18 years to top out around $55 an hour in 2009, the last year of a new contract (They currently top out at $42.40 per hour.) And they want all eligible nurses to receive that wage on a contract date, rather than on each nurse’s anniversary date.
Wage parity with nurses at UMass Memorial Health Care – University Campus remains the union’s goal, says Mary Ellen DeCaro, another nurse organizer. UMass just completed its own negotiations with MNA-affiliated nurses at the hospital, where hourly wages for senior nurse be over $55 in 2009. "Inequity has a lot to do with us losing nurses," DeCaro says, commenting on what the union sees as excessive turnover at the hospital.
Staffing is another major concern for the union, which says that nurses in all departments are being asked to handle more patients than is safe.
It is the first negotiation between the union and Vanguard Heath Systems Inc., the privately owned, Nashville, TN-based firm, which bought the hospital in 2004 from Tenet Health Care.
If they do strike, it would be the second nurses’ strike in fewer than six months in the city. Last October, nurses at UMass struck for about five hours before reaching an agreement with management over a new contract.
In 2000, St. Vincent nurses struck for 49 days. Neither side wants another strike, each says. But both are ready for one. The MNA last week began strike preparation meetings, as the hospital began looking even more at its options in the event of a strike.
Dennis Irish, spokesman for St. Vincent, says that although the strike authorization has made a resolution more pressing, the hospital still hopes to avert a strike and continue negotiations with the MNA. At press time last Thursday, the union and the hospital were scheduled to continue their negotiations Saturday morning, although neither expected an immediate resolution.
"Clearly we are disappointed there was a strike authorization vote," Irish says. "We have made substantial progress. Even the nurses acknowledge that progress, although it’s not as satisfactory or substantial as they would wish. We don’t want to see a strike. They have indicated they are prepared to do so in the event they’re not satisfied, but we hope it won’t come to pass. That means that things have broken down."
Irish, who is also a Worcester City Councilor, says that in the event of strike, the hospital would be prepared.
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