UMass Memorial Nurses Set Strike Date
Less than a month after nurses approved a one-day strike, the Massachusetts Nursing Association, which represents more than 2,000 nurses at UMass Memorial Medical Center, said a walk-out date has been set for May 23.
MNA issued a press release announcing the strike this morning, saying it was giving UMass Memorial the required 10-day notice, however, UMass Memorial spokesman Rob Brogna said that as of 11 a.m., the hospital system hadn't received an official notice.
MNA said the decision to strike followed the latest failed rounds of contract negotiations with UMass Memorial management last Friday and Monday. According to the union, hospital management came to negotiations a week ago saying that nurses would have to agree to allow six or seven-patient assignments. MNA claims that a patient load of that size leads to a 14 to 21 percent increased risk of death for those patients.
In an email, Brogna said, "The MNA's decision to strike is highly disappointing, ignores our willingness to continue good faith negotiations, and casts aside the substantive proposals we have put on the table to address specific concerns."
He said UMass Memorial has made concessions in the past several months and that its newest proposals would add a "significant" number of nurses to the emergency, maternity and NICU departments, as well as the night shift and would provide reduced or no-patient assignments for charge nurses. That all will come at a cost of $10.8 million, Brogna said. He charged that "The MNA has not put forward a single alternative suggestion."
The statement said patient care will go on uninterrupted, and replacement nurses will be brought in during the strike, through a nurse staffing agency.
"The MNA is falsely leading our nurses to believe this is only a one-day strike – that it isn't a big deal, and is primarily symbolic. It is not. Any time a nurse leaves his or her patients it is real and serious," Brogna wrote.
He continued to say that the hospital will be contractually committed to keeping replacement nurses for five days to secure the required number of nurses for safe patient care.
Negotiations have been ongoing for more than a year, with sticking points being what MNA says are unsafe staffing levels of registered nurses, poor patient care, a lack of resources and untenable patient loads following more than six layoffs over the last two years. Nurses at the University campus on North Lake Avenue have worked without a contract since theirs expired on Dec. 31, 2011, while the contract for nurses at the Memorial/Hahnemann campuses expired April 5, 2012. MNA said 20 negotiation sessions have been held with each of the two committees, several with a federal mediator present.
The strike, which MNA said was endorsed by standing-room-only crowds at open meetings yesterday, will be from 6 a.m. Thursday, May 23, to 6 a.m. Friday, May 24. MNA said the nurses have offered four dates for negotiations with UMass Memorial management prior to the strike date.
"Our message to the public is very simple; we are prepared to strike for one day to make it safe for you every day," said Margaret McLoughlin, an RN who is co-chair of the local bargaining unit on the University campus.
Brogna said UMass Memorial is committed to continuing negotiations to avert a strike.
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