St. Vincent's Strike

St. Vincent's Hospital Nurses Negotiating Team To Fly To Washington, D.C. Today For Talks With Tenet Health Care Being Hosted by U.S. Senator Kennedy and Congressman McGovern in an Attempt to Reach a Settlement to End the Strike

WORCESTER, Mass.—This morning, the negotiating team for the St. Vincent's Hospital/Worcester Medical Center nurses are flying to Washington, D.C. to meet with Tenet Health Care Corp. for contract talks being hosted by U.S. Senator Edward M. Kennedy and U.S. Congressman James McGovern in an attempt to reach a settlement to end the 42 day-old strike. The talks, which will be held in Sen. Kennedy's offices beginning at 12:30 p.m., were called after preliminary discussions were held by Sen. Kennedy and Congressman McGovern with the two parties late into evening on Wednesday. The 20-member nurses' negotiating team will fly out of the Delta Airlines terminal at 10:30 a.m.

The issue of mandatory overtime is the single most important issue of concern to the nurses. Currently, the hospital does not use mandatory overtime. The hospital has been demanding the right to mandate double shifts for nurses, forcing nurses against their will to work up to 16 hours straight, something nurses believe is dangerous to patient care.

The parties last met on May 4, but the talks broke down after nine hours when Tenet once again refused to budge from its demand to have the right to mandate up to eight hours of overtime.

For their part, the nurses worked hard to reach an agreement, making a major concession in this round of talks. Initially, the nurses were opposing any language in their contract allowing mandatory overtime. On April 7, they modified their position, allowing up to two hours of overtime each shift, and an additional two hours of overtime per shift in emergencies. At the May 4th session, the nurses compromised further with a proposal that would give the hospital the right to require each nurse to work up to four hours overtime at the hospital's discretion, provided the number of mandatory shifts was held to eight per year and to no more than two per quarter. A nurse would still retain the right to refuse mandatory overtime if she felt too fatigued to do so and provide safe patient care.

The hospital would not relinquish its demand for the right to require eight hours of overtime per shift, or 16 hour shifts in total, with the last eight paid at double time. At the end of the negotiations, the hospital made a final proposal to have the nurses end the strike and come back to work, while both sides submitted their last best offer on the issues of mandatory overtime, as well as the issue of flex time to an independent arbitrator. The nurses refused the offer to go to arbitration.

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