VNA of Boston RNs Vote to Ratify
Two-Year Contract
Pact Grants 2% Raise in Second Year, Increases Contributions for Health Insurance and Includes Nurses’ Innovative Language for Plan to Increase Staff Diversity, With No Cuts in Benefits

The registered nurses of the Visiting Nurse Association of Boston (VNAB) yesterday voted by a margin of 10 to 1 to ratify a new two-year contract. The settlement averted the need for a strike, which the nurses had called for today. A total of 115 nurses voted, with 105 “yes” votes and only 10 “no” votes.

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 Joe-Ann Fergus, co-chair of the nurses bargaining unit. “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.”

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. With the strike deadline of Dec. 10, 1999 the nurses reached a tentative agreement after a marathon 13-hour negotiating session on Dec. 7, 1999. 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.