St. Vincent's Strike

No easy cure: Worcester nurses go on strike over OT impasse
by Doug Hanchett, Boston HeraldSaturday, April 1, 2000

WORCESTER, Mass.—More than 500 nurses at St. Vincent's Hospital walked off the job early yesterday, saying they have the steely resolve to strike for "as long as it takes" to ensure they're never forced to work mandatory overtime.

"(Hospital administrators) have made it very clear to us that they want to save face in this, that they think they have something to gain by doing this," said nurse Sandy Ellis, a union negotiator. "But we are prepared to stay on strike for as long as it takes."

The owner of St. Vincent, Tenet Healthcare Corp. - which met with the nurses three times over the past week in a last-ditch attempt to hammer out a deal - says it is equally prepared to hunker down and grind it out.

"We don't feel we can give on the (overtime) issue," said Robert E. Maher Jr., the president and CEO of St. Vincent, the sixth-largest acute care hospital in the state with 369 beds. "Short of (a compromise by the union), I don't see us going back to the table."

It is the first strike by registered nurses in Massachusetts since 1986.

Whether the two sides are simply posturing or truly prepared for a long, drawn-out battle, the strike has left patients at St. Vincent's uneasy.

"I'm very nervous," said Luisa, a woman who's expecting to undergo surgery at the Worcester Medical Center. "It bothers me because I have a (medical) problem and I don't know what's going to happen."

The lone hold-up in contract negotiations is the use of mandatory overtime.  Tenet wants to reserve the right to make nurses stay on the job after their shift ends, saying it's imperative to providing "a safety net" for patients.

"We feel very strongly that we would jeopardize patient care if we did not have the ability - though we don't want to use it - to mandate (overtime)," said Maher.

But nurses at St. Vincent, bargaining collectively for the first time since joining the Massachusetts Nurses Association, say administrators want to use mandatory OT as a cheap way to make up for inadequate staffing levels.

"That's really quite ridiculous to say it's a safety issue if a nurse leaves because there isn't going to be anyone here to take care of the patients," said Ellis. "It is not a nurse's job to do management's job and staff the hospital appropriately.

"Hire the people, hire the nurses to come in here and mandatory overtime won't be an issue."

The strike came on the eve of the hospital's scheduled move to a brand new facility in downtown Worcester. Today 175 patients will be transferred to the $215 million Worcester Medical Center - next to the Worcester Centrum - in a move that's expected to take 12 hours.

Striking nurses say they'll continue to protest peacefully outside both facilities, but promised not to interrupt with the transfer of patients.

"We have absolutely no intention of stopping ambulances from going back and forth to the hospitals," said nurse Sandy Ellis, a member of the St. Vincent's contract negotiating team. "We're not going to disrupt things."

The state's Department of Public Health, which is keeping a close eye on things inside the hospital, is taking no chances. Paul Jacobsen, deputy commissioner of the DPH, will be in Worcester during the day, joined by additional monitors to make sure patients are being properly cared for during the move.

"We want to ensure that the transfer of patients is orderly and proceeds well," said Roseanne Pawelec, a DPH spokesperson.

The squawking of car horns provided the soundtrack outside the hospital throughout the day as the strike unfolded yesterday. Cars, city buses and even Worcester fire trucks gave supportive honks to let the nurses know they're on their side.

But inside the hospital, the horns and slogan-shouting nurses were barely audible.

Many of the striking nurses believe Tenet, a for-profit corporation that owns 130 hospitals nationwide, is simply trying to break up the newly-formed union at St. Vincent's so nurses at its other hospitals don't follow their lead.

"I definitely think they're trying to bust the union," said Kerry Wallace, a cardio-thoracic nurse who's been at St. Vincent's for just seven months. "I don't trust Tenet. I think it's a horrible company to work for, I really don't think they're ethical and I think that they would shut us out just to prove a point."

Johane Bromley of Upton, who is expecting her second child on June 1, hopes that Tenet's regular nurses are back in the fold by the time she's ready to deliver.

"Hopefully this will be resolved before my due date," Bromley said yesterday after at check-up at St. Vincent. "Their hand-holding is critical during labor."

But a quick resolution seemed a long shot yesterday.
Striking nurses said a widespread nursing shortage has presented temporary, on-call opportunities for them at other hospitals, meaning they can continue to collect a paycheck while remaining on strike.

Copyright 2000 by the Boston Herald

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