UMass Memorial, nurses agree on new contract

Photo | Grant Welker UMass Memorial's Memorial Campus in Worcester

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By Grant Welker

Nearly 1,400 union nurses at UMass Memorial Medical Center's University Campus have reached a tentative agreement on a new contract both sides said gives 6.7% in pay raises over four years.

The new contract will increase staff on certain critical-care floors, including what the Massachusetts Nurses Association said are critical care units and medical-care units, as well as formation of a committee to evaluate nurses’ staffing concerns and recommend changes to improve patient care.

The deal for nurses at the University Campus follows an identical agreement ratified this month at UMass' Memorial Campus, which covers roughly 960 nurses.

Both agreements provide a pay increase for all nurses over the four years with a compounding rate of 6.7%. That includes a 1% increase retroactive to June 2018, 1.5% in June 2019, and 2% in each the next two years, the nurses union said. The contracts increase training programs on workplace violence and de-escalating patients and visitors with aggressive behavior.

Both sides expressed satisfaction with the new deal.

“The nurses are very pleased with our new contract and are looking forward to the staffing improvements provided in this agreement to ensure better care for the patients we care for every day," Ellen Smith, a critical care nurse at the University Campus and co-chair of the MNA local bargaining unit, said in a statement.

Michael Gustafson, the president of UMass Memorial Medical Center, said he was pleased contracts have been settled. "With these settlements we now have several years to further strengthen our relationship with our represented caregivers and that is precisely what this leadership team intends to do," Gustafson said.