UMass Memorial Reaches Deal With 1 Nurses Group

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UMass Memorial Medical Center and nurses at its Memorial and Hahnemann campuses announced that they've reached a tentative, two-year agreement, avoiding a strike with that group after 18 months of negotiations.

However, the same offer for nurses at the University campus has been pulled, and the health care system is preparing for a scheduled one-day walkout by that union next Thursday, according to a statement Friday afternoon from Eric Dickson, president and CEO of UMass Memorial Health Care, to the health care system's staff.

The more than 2,000 nurses from both groups, represented by the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA), had planned a one-day strike for next Thursday. Nurses from the University campus have not retreated from that intent, and Dickson said UMass Memorial has transferred $4 million to a staffing firm to provide replacements who will fill in for striking nurses for at least five days.

"This is disappointing because our offer was fair and we had hoped it would have put an end to the negotiations," Dickson's statement read.
In a letter to staff posted on its website, UMass Memorial, Dickson said, "We offered the MNA-University committee a last, best and final offer that contains the same terms as the Memorial agreement. Inexplicably, they refused to bargain and left."

According to the MNA, representatives from the University campus were scheduled to return to the bargaining table Monday.

"We believe that the medical center's last, best and final offer is a fair one that includes significant steps to improve staffing throughout the medical center," UMass Memorial said. "The MNA-Memorial/Hahnemann committee obviously agreed."

Dickson told staffers that he will send information about reducing the number of hospitalized patients at the University campus. "I can assure you that we will continue provide excellent and safe care for our patients during the five-day period," he said.

At the heart of the negotiations has been what MNA contends are unsafe staffing levels.

The agreement UMass Memorial reached with the Memorial and Hahnemann nurses, which MNA said came after 20 hours of talks with a federal mediator, stated that there will be no more than five patients to each nurse during the day shift and an average of five for evening and night shifts. All seven-patient assignments on the night shift will be phased out within 12 weeks of the contract's negotiations and there will be a limit of six patients to each nurse. Within six months, one critical care nurse will be added and nine full-time equivalents will be added to the neonatal intensive care unit.

The full agreement can be read here.

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