Thanks to the Mass. Senior Action Council for a Great Rally in Support of the Brockton Hospital Nurses

Bravo Massachusetts Senior Action Council and thank you MSAC President Phil Mamber for a tremendously successful and powerful rally yesterday in support the Brockton Hospital Nurses. More than 150 seniors from across the Commonwealth rallied with the nurses, local and state officials to call upon Brockton Hospital to settle this contract and respond to the nurses' demands for safe staffing levels and an end to mandatory overtime. Below are two news stories that originated from this event. Notice Brockton Hospital Spokesperson Robert Hughes' comments in the first story about, and characterization of, the senior citizens who came to support the nurses. In reading his comments, it is clear why these nurses have been on strike for over 50 days.

Senior citizens rally to support nurses
By Jocelyn Meek,
Enterprise staff writer

BROCKTON, Mass.—In a show of solidarity for striking Brockton Hospital nurses, 150 senior citizens from across the state joined the picket line Thursday morning.

"We're in support of the nurses, the caregivers we depend on," said Phil Mamber, president of the Massachusetts Senior Action Council. "They're fighting the fight for our health and safety."

Mamber and other MSAC members rallied with some of striking nurses on the 49th day of the walkout. Outside the Centre Street hospital, the seniors waved signs, encouraged passing cars to honk their horns in support and sent a loud message to hospital administrators.

Nellie Edey of Cambridge came not only to support the Brockton nurses, but health care providers across the state. Edey's daughter is a nurse. "They've been out here long enough. It's time for somebody to do something for them," said Edey, who was wearing a "We're not laughing at understaffing" sign around her neck. "I'm supporting these nurses and all nurses everywhere. This mandatory overtime is for the birds." The nurses walked out May 25, protesting what they view as inadequate staffing levels at the hospital, the use of mandatory overtime and proposed salary increases.

The last time union officials sat down with hospital administrators was July 3, and those talks went nowhere.

Heartened by the turnout of seniors, the nurses Thursday chanted "We will win! We will win!" as passing cars honked in support. Barbara Cooke, a medical-surgical unit nurse who has worked at the hospital 17 years, said the turnout "really got me emotional." "These are the people we actually take care of," Cooke said, surveying the crowd. "And they get it. They know we are fighting the good fight for better quality of care."

The strike, in its 50th day, has now outlasted a similar nurses' strike at St. Vincent's Hospital in Worcester last year.

Brockton Hospital Vice President Bob Hughes said he wasn't sure why the Massachusetts Senior Action Council would become involved in the strike. "I am curious what qualifies them to comment on this at all," Hughes said. "No one from the Mass. Senior Action Council contacted us for facts or data regarding this issue. I would classify them as outside agitators." Isaac BenEzra rode a bus from Amherst to be at the rally. BenEzra, who had 12 surgeries resulting from a car accident seven years ago, came to share "the patient's perspective."

"We're not paying for adequate care, we will not settle for anything less than quality care," he said, leaning on a walker. "We want hospitals to work for people and not for profit."

Paul "Red" Sullivan of Brockton and his wife, Jean, have been giving their time walking the line with the nurses out of gratitude for care they received over the years.

"This is what I call a thank you," Sullivan said, unfolding a chair on the sidewalk across from the hospital. "The nurses, they went above and beyond. They deserve more help."

The seniors were joined by state Sen. Stephen Lynch, D-South Boston, a 9th District congressional candidate, and Sen. Cheryl Jacques, D-Needham, who encouraged the nurses to keep up their spirits and stay true to their cause. Present and retired union members from the Steel Workers, United Auto Workers and Communication Workers, among other unions, also were present. Mary Margaret Trudeau of Marlboro is a retired nurse. Trudeau said mandatory overtime is a health and safety risk for everyone involved. "A person goes into nursing to take care of people, they don't go into it for the money. To work for 16 hours is just ridiculous," Trudeau said. "If one of the (hospital) hotshots got sick, wouldn't they want a nurse working 8 hours, with a bright mind and rested body?"

Joyce Bishop of Easton, a 27-year nurse at the hospital, said the seniors provided her with a boost after so long walking the line. "It's a good feeling to know they're here and that they care," Bishop said. "They know the issues and they know what's at stake here, it's not just about nurses, it's about the quality of care."

Jocelyn Meek can be reached at jmeek@enterprisenews.com


Nurses' strike in 50th day
By Anne Barnard
Globe Staff
7/13/2001

http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/194/metro/Nurses_strike_in_50th_day+.shtml

BROCKTON - Nurses at Brockton Hospital will spend their 50th day on the picket line today, making their strike the state's longest nursing walkout since 1982. And there's no end in sight.

On the surface, the issues are the same ones that sparked the strike at St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester last year.

But the Brockton battle is between a fiercer pair of adversaries. And the national climate has changed since last April, when the St. Vincent strike ended on day 49 with a landmark agreement limiting the number of hours nurses could be forced to work overtime. Brockton Hospital is fighting a new, more aggressive union leadership team, galvanized by a year of contract successes and national attention to their cause. And the union faces a hospital administration that's embedded in the local establishment and not afraid to stand up for itself.

Yesterday, most cars passing the picket line seemed to honk in solidarity. Senators John F. Kerry and Edward M. Kennedy, who helped resolve the St. Vincent's strike, have sent letters to the hospital urging them to address the overtime issue. But so far, nurses have not won the kind of noisy support from city politicians as they did in Worcester. During a rally held by the Massachusetts Senior Action Council, security guards ordered nurses to remove their lawn chairs from the grass around the edge of the hospital grounds, which was marked off by orange netting and red and white barriers.

"Boo, Norman!" the picketers shouted, referring to hospital CEO Norman Goodman, whose effigy was slumped in a corner of the strike office. Negotiations have been stalled since July 2. Nurses accuse the hospital of wasting precious funds to fight mandatory overtime limits they say would improve patient safety.

The hospital accuses the union of hyping the issue for political gain. The hospital is paying room, board and hefty hourly wages - how much, officials will not say - for 200 replacement nurses, provided by US Nursing Corp., which flies in nurses to cross picket lines. And in recent weeks, the standoff has only become harsher. "They're simply using and sacrificing our nurses on the altar," Bob Hughes, the hospital's vice president, said yesterday, criticizing the union.

"This is a vendetta," said Deanne Filteau, a coronary care nurse holding a picket sign outside the hospital. Kathy Metzger, an operating room nurse, said of Goodman, "He will not lose to a bunch of nurses." Though two-thirds of Massachusetts hospitals are operating in the red, Brockton Hospital posted a $2 million gain last year.

Nurses, however, are feeling powerful. Since the St. Vincent strike, mandatory overtime has become a national issue. Three other hospitals in Massachusetts and Rhode Island have agreed to limits similar to St. Vincent's, where mandatory overtime is limited to four hours, eight times a year. More than 7,000 nurses in Minnesota last month won similar limits. At the same time, hospitals are desperate to recruit nurses, who are staying out of the workforce nationwide, experts say, largely because they are frustrated with working conditions. Brockton nurses say they are finding temporary work and permanent job offers at competing hospitals such as Caritas Good Samaritan across town, South Shore Hospital in Weymouth and Quincy Hospital.

A Good Samaritan administrator said admissions were up 12.8 percent over the same period last year, but it was unclear whether that was because of the strike. Hughes said Brockton admissions were up too, but refused to provide data.

Meanwhile, the union, the Massachusetts Nurses Association, recently broke off from its national parent, the American Nurses Association, with ambitions to launch a new alliance with California nurses and others, ambitions Hughes says are the true reasons behind the strike.

"To say this issue is for the benefit of the community is specious," he said, noting that St. Vincent and UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, two hospitals where the union recently won mandatory overtime limits, recently announced layoffs. He said the limits would cost the hospital money it needs to serve a low-income population.

"That is absolute spin," countered union spokesman David Schildmeier. He said management at the other hospitals had never complained that the new contract language was causing economic difficulties. It is the hospital's spending on security guards and replacement nurses, union members argued, that threatens funding for community programs. Union members were circulating a pay stub from a replacement nurse that they said was left on a hospital copy machine. It showed gross pay of $4,500 for an 84-hour work week.

"You're telling me that's a safe nurse?" Metzger said. Department of Public Health officials, who have been monitoring the hospital, said there had been no increase in adverse events during the strike.

This story ran on page 2 of the Boston Globe on 7/13/2001.

© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.

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