It
appears the St. Vincent Hospital nurses have indeed sparked a growing
brush fire of much needed nursing activism throughout New England.
Below is some recent press about this growing movement, including
information about the looming strike at Rhode Island Hospital.
Recently, another MNA bargaining unit was ready to strike over these
same issues and the Brockton VNA nurses are struggling for a fair
contract too. Additionally, this web site's Labor
page is full of information on nursing strikes taking place throughout
the country. A growing movement is happening in nursing NOW
and you are needed to be part of it nursing successful future.
As we did for the St. Vincent Nurses, we will need to lend our support
to the courageous nurses in Rhode Island, who are making their own
important stand for nurses and patients.
N.E. nurses unions flex their muscle
by Anne Barnard, Boston Globe
June 22, 2000
Emboldened by a successful six-week strike at St.Vincent's Hospital
in Worcester, which won limits on mandatory overtime, health-care
workers across the region are flexing their muscle.
On Tuesday, Faulkner Hospital in Jamaica Plain averted a strike
by reaching a tentative agreement with its nurses, while in Providence,
nurses and other hospital workers at Rhode Island Hospital announced
plans to strike beginning June 30.
At both hospitals, union spokesmen said, the key issues were mandatory
overtime and staffing levels - the same issues that dominated the
contentious St. Vincent's strike. That strike ended in May with
the hospital agreeing not to force nurses to work more than 12 hours
in row.
Though the Faulkner Hospital contract must still be ratified by
union members, David Schildmeier, spokesman for the Massachusetts
Nurses Association, was elated yesterday, saying that all the nurses'
concerns had been "satisfactorily addressed."
Health-care workers have increased leverage now because of low
unemployment and a growing nursing shortage that is making it hard
to recruit and retain nurses, said Hal Ruddick, staff director of
Local 285 of the Service Employees International Union. Ruddick
negotiated a contract last October that strengthened limits on mandatory
overtime for nurses at Boston Medical Center.
"It does give employees some more confidence that they have the
ability to fight back," he said. "But people aren't taking a stand
just because they have more leverage. ... The work conditions for
nurses and hospital workers in general have been deteriorating in
recent years. People are working short-staffed."
Staffing is a key issue in contract negotiations at Union Hospital
in Lynn, where nurses' and medical technicians' contracts expired
10 days ago; at Whidden Memorial Hospital in Everett, where service
workers are trying to organize for the first time; and at Brockton
Visiting Nurses Association, a home health-care provider, unions
said.
Meanwhile, the Massachusetts Nurses Association, which represents
the nurses at St. Vincent's as well as at Faulkner, is advising
nurses at Rhode Island Hospital, who once came up to support the
picket line at St. Vincent's.
Linda McDonald, who heads the United Nurses and Allied Professionals
local at Rhode Island Hospital, said the hospital uses mandatory
overtime not only in crises but to cover routine staffing needs
- a common refrain at both St. Vincent's and Faulkner.
At St. Vincent's, the hospital agreed to limit mandatory overtime
to four hours a day, no more than eight times a year. At Faulkner,
neither side would release the details of the agreement, but the
union said earlier that the nurses were seeking limits somewhat
less strict than those at St. Vincent's.
Nurses at Faulkner also wanted to reinstitute their "step" salary
scale of seniority raises, which they had agreed to forgo when the
hospital was going through hard times. But after Faulkner affiliated
last year with Brigham and Women's Hospital, where nurses still
have a step scale, they wanted the raises reinstituted.
Faulkner spokeswoman Stephanie Pfaff said the agreement "allows
us to move forward with our agenda of growth and development."
Negotiations continued yesterday at Rhode Island Hospital. A strike
by 1,700 nurses and health workers could hurt the hospital during
the busy July Fourth holiday weekend. The other union at the hospital
- the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which represents 1,900
workers -could honor a picket line, leaving the hospital with fewer
than half its employees on the job.
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.
This story ran on page B05 of the Boston Globe on 6/22/2000.
© Copyright 2000 Globe Newspaper Company.
RHODE ISLAND NEWS:
Nurses edging toward strike
By FELICE J. FREYER, Providence Journal
June 20, 2000
The union that represents nurses and other workers at Rhode
Island Hospital votes to give the hospital a 10-day strike notice
sometime today.
EAST PROVIDENCE—The union representing 1,700 nurses and other professionals
at Rhode Island Hospital voted overwhelmingly yesterday to authorize
its negotiating team to give the hospital a 10-day strike notice.
The 1,017-to-53 vote brings the union and hospital closer to a strike,
but does not make one inevitable.
President Linda McDonald said the union will give the hospital
the strike notice, which is required by federal law, sometime today.
A strike, if negotiations fail, would begin July 1, she said.
Another membership vote would be taken on the hospital's final
offer before a strike begins. The contract expires June 30.
The key issue, union leaders and members said, is the mandatory
overtime that they say the hospital routinely forces on them, undermining
their ability to work safely and disrupting their lives.
Meanwhile, the two sides are scheduled to return to the negotiating
table tomorrow, and the hospital has asked for a federal mediator
to help with negotiations. Tomorrow's meeting is one of five bargaining
sessions scheduled before June 30.
"We're still two weeks from the conclusion of the agreement," said
hospital spokeswoman Jane Bruno. "A lot can happen in five sessions."
Nevertheless, the hospital has already hired an agency to provide
replacement nurses and has begun discussions with state Health Department
officials on preparations for a strike, an event that would likely
shake Rhode Island's entire health-care system.
Rhode Island Hospital, in Providence, is the state's largest hospital,
the primary teaching site for the Brown University School of Medicine,
and home to the region's only trauma center and children's hospital.
It employs 5,000 people and offers specialty services not available
elsewhere in the state.
The vote by members of the United Nurses and Allied Professionals
(UNAP) was taken by secret ballot at five meetings held throughout
the day at the Teamsters' hall in East Providence.
Time and again, union members interviewed as they left an afternoon
meeting raised the same issue that led to the recent strike at St.
Vincent's Hospital in Worcester: mandatory overtime. Nurses say
the hospital is so understaffed that the practice of requiring nurses
to work an extra shift—intended for emergencies and unforeseen problems—is
used routinely to fill "known holes" in the schedule.
The hospital has acknowledged it is short-staffed, but said it
is working hard to recruit nurses at a time when they are in short
supply. The union insists that nurses are plentiful but few will
stay for long at Rhode Island, where nurses say conditions are tough
and wages below par.
Sue Pouliot, a nurse in the medical intensive care unit, said she
had voted for the strike and expected one to occur. "It needs to
be done," she said. "I'm a single mom. It will mean tapping
into money I don't have."
"I'm scared. I just bought a house," said Amy Costello, a nurse
on the same unit. But she favors a strike because the hospital's
proposals "are just insulting," she said.
Kate Pinheiro said that often nurses are placed on mandatory overtime
in
areas of the hospital where they have no experience. "It's not fair
being
floated to other floors. Nursing is specialized. It's an endangerment
situation. ... Your kids are home alone and you haven't slept in
24 hours and
they tell you, ‘Deal with it.' "
"Everyone is just so tired of how we're staffed and treated," said
Patti Carreiro, a nurse in pediatric intensive care. "There aren't
many other jobs that won't let you go home after eight hours."
Erica Agren, a mental health worker on the hospital's psychiatric
unit, said she had been on the job—her first "real job"—only six
months. She didn't want to say how she voted. "The whole thing is
new and confusing and scary," she said.
McDonald, the UNAP president and a critical-care nurse, said that
mandatory overtime takes a frightening toll on union members. Unlike
with some jobs, hospital work doesn't necessarily wind down toward
the end of a shift, she said. "You can get two post-op patients
in your last hours," she said.
Because of staffing shortages at all levels, McDonald contended,
patients no longer get the best care—nurses don't have time to turn
immobile patients as often as they should, or give them their medications
on time, or teach their families how to care for them at home.
"They're abdicating their responsibility to staff responsibly,"
said Rick Brooks, UNAP director.
Linda Shelton, a hospital spokeswoman, said that the hospital is
pressed for money. "We do have an economic dilemma that we face
as well," she said, noting that last year Rhode Island Hospital
lost $33.9 million, and spent $23.3 million on uncompensated care
and $22 million on graduate medical education.
"It's not an expense problem. It's a revenue problem," Brooks countered.
"They go after it on the expense side. They don't go after the HMOs
aggressively enough." Meanwhile, the hospital's parent company,
Lifespan, spends "tens of millions" on system expansion and consultants,
Brooks said.
Year after year, Brooks said, the hospital budgets for a lower
volume of patients and the volume doesn't drop. The result is chronic
staff shortages, he said.
The union has proposed a measure permitting an employee to decline
an overtime shift if he or she does not feel physically or mentally
able to work. The hospital, according to the union, instead wants
a series of provisions that would make it easier for the hospital
to resort to mandatory overtime, including eliminating double-time
pay.
The hospital has declined to publicly discuss the specific issues
raised in negotiations. "We value our nurses and our technical employees
and the critical role they play in health care," said Bruno, the
spokeswoman. "We believe that a good outcome is most likely in direct
discussions with negotiating teams."
McDonald says that the public's sentiments would be with union members
if there were a strike. "Anyone who has been through our emergency
room, or been in our ICUs or on our floors understands how hard
we've been working and how dedicated we are," she said.
Copyright © 2000 The Providence Journal Company
Nurses give strike notice; hospital considers layoffs
By FELICE J. FREYER, Providence Journal
June 21, 2000
PROVIDENCE—The union that represents 1,700 nurses and other professionals
at Rhode Island Hospital yesterday said it had issued "a formal
notice to Rhode Island Hospital of its intent to walk off the job
at 7 a.m. on July 1" if a new contract agreement is not reached
by then. But the hospital, in a letter to employees released late
yesterday, said that the notice was ambiguous. Hospital President
Joseph Amaral said the notice referred to an intent to "strike,
picket or engage in other concerted protected activity."
"It is not clear from the notice what we need to prepare for,"
Amaral wrote.
Amaral also accused the union of failing to engage in "meaningful
and constructive negotiations." He said that if there is going to
be a strike, the hospital would have to start reducing services
"almost immediately," and that may result in layoffs even before
July 1.
Members of the United Nurses & Allied Professionals union voted
1,017 to 53 on Monday to authorize the negotiating team to give
the hospital a 10-day strike notice, which is required
by federal law. The hospital is expected today to give the Health
Department a plan for providing services during a strike.
Copyright © 2000 The Providence Journal Company
Teamsters vote to honor nurses' picket line if strike is called
By Zachary Block, Providence Journal
Thursday, June 22, 2000 @ 4:30 p.m.
PROVIDENCE — The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which
represents 1,900 technical, clerical and housekeeping workers at
Rhode Island Hospital, voted today to honor a picket line if the
1,700-member United Nurses & Allied Professionals walks off
the job, as the nurses' union has pledged to do if a contract settlement
with the hospital is not reached by July 1. Rhode Island Hospital,
the state's largest medical center, encompasses Hasbro Children's
Hospital and runs the region's only top-level trauma center. The
nurses' union, in the final days of a three-year contract, wants
administrators to raise pay and abolish mandatory overtime. The
hospital plans to hire replacement nurses, reduce the number of
patients, and lay off workers if a strike is called. Nurses are
rallying outside the hospital this afternoon.
Copyright © 2000 The Providence Journal Company
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