Strike Averted: VNA of Boston RNs Reach Tentative Agreement on Two-Year Contract
As Management Withdraws Demands for Cut in Benefits, Grants 2% Raise in Second Year, Increases Contributions for Health Insurance and Accepts Nurses Innovative Language for Plan to Increase Staff Diversity

After a marathon thirteen-hour negotiating session that ended late last night, registered nurses of the Visiting Nurse Association of Boston (VNAB) reached a tentative agreement with the agency’s management for a new two-year contract. The settlement averts a strike, which the nurses had called for Dec. 10, 1999. The agreement was reached after VNAB management agreed to withdraw its unpopular demand for the nurses to cut their benefits by 5% and go without a salary increase for the life of the contract.

Instead, both parties agreed to a pact that will grant the nurses a 2% salary increase in the contract’s second year, lift the freeze on their salary scale at the end of the second year (which means the nurses would be eligible for an annual wage increase of 4% after the freeze is lifted), and increase the employer’s contributions for heath insurance benefits for nurses with families.

“We are truly proud that we stood together and had the strength of our convictions in this struggle,” said Jo-Ann Fergus, co-chair of the nurses bargaining unit. “While we didn’t get everything we wanted, we were able to remove all concessions from the table and provide an increase in compensation to our nurses. We believe this fight has brought the nurses of this agency into greater solidarity and empowerment, which will only serve to improve this agency in the future.

The contract also gives nurses who work weekends a $1 increase in their per-visit pay rate. Weekend nurses do not receive an hourly rate of pay, but are paid a specific amount for each patient visit they make (weekend nurses, who have received $28 per visit, will now receive $29 per visit under the new contract). Of particular interest to the nurses, who serve a diverse community throughout Greater Boston and beyond, was the agency’s acceptance of their proposal calling for a plan to increase the diversity of the nursing staff at the agency. The language establishes a joint committee comprising members of the nurses’ union and management to develop and implement a plan to increase the recruitment and retention of a diverse staff, non-nurses as well as nurses.

According to Julie Pinkham, Director of Labor Relations for the MNA, “The language these nurses have negotiated to improve diversity is a major accomplishment and a milestone for the MNA in addressing the issue of diversity through collective bargaining contracts. It creates a real labor-management process to recruit and retain a diverse nursing workforce to serve a diverse community, which is a major goal of our entire organization and one which we hope to duplicate in many of our other contracts throughout the state.”

Fergus and the nurses also had words of praise for the many supporters who came to their aide as they moved closer to a strike. “The support from the community, from hundreds of nurses and non-nurses, from other unions and citizen advocates was tremendous. It was gratifying for our nurses to see the community rally around us as they did; to see that we were not alone in all of this and that they understood what we were fighting for.”

The MNA will present the agreement to its membership and hold a vote to ratify the contract on Thursday, Dec. 8, 1999, at the VNAB Harbor Office at 4:30 p.m.

The 188 nurses of the VNA of Boston, who are represented by the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA), have been negotiating their new contract since August of 1999. On Nov. 29, 1999, the nurses issued a required 10-day notice of their intention to strike. The existing contract expired on November 30th. The parties have met five times since that vote, with the last three negotiating sessions before a federal mediator. The VNAB nurses provide comprehensive home nursing care to some the city’s most vulnerable citizens, including service to some of the city’s most dangerous neighborhoods.

The nurses were driven to consider a strike by the agency’s demand that they accept no salary increase, along with a 5% cut in their benefits. The proposed benefits cuts included taking away two holidays and a full week of vacation time; elimination of life, HIV insurance and tuition reimbursement, and decreasing reimbursement for mileage by 50%.The agency would have also eliminated its contributions to the nurses’ dental benefit, while the nurses would be expected to pay more for their health insurance benefits. The nurses, who agreed in their last contract (1997) to freeze their wage increases, had already given back 8% of their salaries by this action. They had seen their workload increase by 40% over the last two years and were firm in their commitment to accept no reductions in salary or benefits.

“It is important to remember that these cuts were removed because these nurses were willing to back up their words with their feet, and to walk off the job to defend the integrity of their practice and to demand the respect they deserve for what they do,” Pinkham said. “It is another example of how unionized nurses, with the support from a growing coalition of citizen, allied health and labor groups, are fighting back and saying ‘no’ to the corporatization of the health care system.”