Fridays Talks Break Down With No Resolution, St. Vincent RNs' Strike Continues. Tenet Continues to Demand Mandatory 16 Hour Shifts

WORCESTER, Mass.—After a 6-hour negotiating session on Friday, talks between the St. Vincent Hospital nurses and Tenet Health Care broke down after the hospital refused to withdraw its demand for mandatory 16 hour shifts as a means of staffing the hospital in non-emergent situations. The impasse will keep the nurses on the picket line as the strike enters its second week.

At Friday's session the nurses made a significant concession to resolve the dispute by agreeing to work up to four hours of mandatory overtime. The nurses' proposal would allow management to mandate a nurse to work two hours of overtime. plus two additional hours at the nurses discretion. Additionally, a nurse would have the right to refuse mandatory overtime if and when she feels too fatigued or impaired to provide safe patient care.

The proposal to place limits on mandatory overtime mirrors a number of contract agreements MNA-represented nurses have negotiated at facilities where poor staffing conditions exist and mandatory overtime is used to compensate for lack of adequate staffing. The proposal also responds to CEO Bob Mahers public statements that, in most cases, nurses would not be expected to work more than two to three hours of mandatory overtime.

For its part, Tenet again demanded the right to mandate 16 hour shifts. Under their proposal, a nurse working an eight hour shift would be provided only one hours notice that he or she would have stay an additional eight hours. Those who are mandated would be paid double time.

"We are deeply disappointed with the outcome of todays negotiations," said Sandy Ellis, RN, a member of the bargaining committee and spokesperson for the nurses. "Our proposal represents an enormous concession on our part, especially in light of the fact that we have never been required to work mandatory overtime in the past. Tenets response is to attempt to buy us off with double time. We told them across the table, this has never been about money, You cant pay us enough to practice unsafe nursing care."

The nurses have been attempting to negotiate their first contract with Tenet, the nations second largest for-profit hospital chain, for more than two years. The 535 nurses have organized a union and been using the collective bargaining process to address their primary concerns about inadequate staffing levels and deplorable working conditions under Tenet management. Tenets staffing levels are the worst of the 85 facilities where the Massachusetts Nurses Association represents nurses in the state. St. Vincent nurses on the day shift are regularly assigned between 8 – 10 patients on days, and between 12 – 14 patients on nights. A safe assignment is no more than six patients on days, and 8 patients on nights. The nurses have filed more than 450 official reports of unsafe statting assignments that "jeopardize patient care."

The nurses voted by a nearly three-to-one margin to authorize a strike on March 16, and issued their official notice to strike on March 17. After a 13-hour negotiating session on March 29, the nurses called their strike two days later. The nurses have been conducting picketing at both St. Vincent Hospital and the new Worcester Medical Center.

Tenet purchased St. Vincent Hospital in 1997, and has also built the new $215 million Worcester Medical Center in downtown Worcester. Tenet was scheduled to open the new facility and move the patients into it on April 1, 2000. The move was postponed for two days because of problems with care being delivered by more than 120 replacement "scab" nurses provided by U.S. Nursing Corps, a Denver-based firm that specializes in providing strike breaking nurses to hospitals involved in labor disputes. The nurses are paid more than $4,000 per week as well as food and lodging. The move to Worcester Medical Center took place on April 3, 2000. The MNA has received numerous reports from employees and physicians inside the facility, as well as from patients leaving the facility that the nursing care being provided is very poor, and that the hospital is in a state of chaos.

Support for the nurses continues to build within the Greater Worcester community as well as from throughout the state and nation. This week, the Worcester/Framingham Central Labor Council, AFL-CIOs Street Heat, a union activist group will conduct a demonstration on behalf of the nurses on Wednesday, April 12, 2000 from 4:30 – 6:30 p.m. outside Worcester Medical Center. A Candlelight Vigil is also being planned for April 18, 2000 from 7:30 – 9:30 p.m.

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