Trinity Health: Give nurses and patients the respect and dignity they deserve!

Trinity Health Board of Directors

Nurses at Mercy Medical Center in Springfield, represented by the Massachusetts Nurses Association, have been in bargaining with Mercy’s owners — the massive, national hospital corporation, Trinity Health — for months. Despite the nurses' work to keep the community safe and healthy, Trinity executives continue to understaff the hospital leading to unsafe working conditions. Trinity’s bare-bones staffing model leads to burnout among nurses and hurts Mercy’s mostly Black and Latinx patient population.

Trinity Health has also proposed to cut nurses' time off and benefits, and has not made any moves towards making the hospital safe for everyone. It’s time we as a community stand up to corporate healthcare greed and stand with nurses and their patients!

Join Mass JwJ in demanding Trinity Health:

✔ LISTEN TO MERCY MEDICAL NURSES!

Mercy nurses know what their workplace and patients need, and that’s why they are calling for safer nurse-to-patient limits. They want patient care units fully staffed with nurses experienced to care for patients in those areas, but Trinity increasingly floats nurses around the hospital even when they may be unfamiliar with the specific patient conditions, equipment or procedures on a unit, making it harder to provide safe patient care.

✔ LEAVE MERCY NURSES' SICK TIME ALONE!

Nurses deserve adequate sick time, always. Whether it be a common cold going around or a global pandemic, nurses should only be expected to work when they’re well so they can continue to look out for the community’s health, and they should not be disciplined for calling in sick.

✔ GIVE NURSES AND PATIENTS THE RESPECT AND DIGNITY THEY DESERVE!

Unfair contracts, unsafe staffing models, and burnout leads to nurse turnover, and also negatively affect us as patients. But Trinity Health doesn’t care! This multi-billion dollar organization, based 600 miles away, sees nurses as disposable and patients as dollar signs. It’s why they closed Farren Care Center and sold Providence Hospital to the lowest bidder; they came to Western Massachusetts to act as venture capitalists. That’s why we have to demand respect and dignity, loud and clear!

Sign on to our petition here, and be sure to add your own comments to the Trinity Board of Directors in the comment box. Our frontline workers are always essential and deserve better, we deserve better, and we’re going to demand it!

To: Trinity Health Board of Directors
From: [Your Name]

Dear Trinity Health Board of Directors,

I am writing to demand that you:
1. Listen to Mercy Medical nurses, because Mercy nurses know what their workplace and patients need. They want patient care units fully staffed with nurses experienced to care for patients in those areas, but you increasingly float nurses around the hospital even when they may be unfamiliar with the specific patient conditions, equipment or procedures on a unit, making it harder to provide safe patient care.

2. Leave Mercy nurse’s sick time alone, because nurses deserve adequate sick time, always. Whether it be a common cold going around or a global pandemic, nurses should only be expected to work when they’re well so they can continue to look out for the community’s health, and they should not be disciplined for calling in sick.

3. Give nurses and patients the respect and dignity they deserve! Unfair contracts, unsafe staffing models, and burnout leads to nurse turnover, and also negatively affect us as patients. Nurses are not disposable and patients are not dollar signs. We demand respect and dignity for ourselves and the nurses of Mercy Medical Center!

Mercy nurses are on the frontlines every day, saving the lives of those with COVID-19 while also caring for all other patients. These frontline workers deserve to have their voices heard and have a fair contract settled, and the community deserves high-quality and safe care. It is time to settle a fair contract with the nurses of Mercy Medical Center and invest in the future of our community.