Brockton Hospital Nurses' Latest Negotiations End After Just 20-Minutes

Hospital Refuses to Present Any Options or Proposals to Resolve Conflicts. Nurses Prepare to Strike on Friday, May 25th

Talks between the Brockton Hospital nurses and management broke off today after only 20 minutes of negotiations as the hospital refused to present any other proposals to resolve the contract.

Talks had broken off on Wednesday of last week with the expectation that the hospital would make a comprehensive counter-proposal to all the outstanding issues so that both sides could come to a resolution at today's meeting and avert a strike. Upon entering negotiations, hospital management advised the Brockton nurse that it had no intention to offer any additional proposals and made clear its intention not to entertain any contract settlement that included any language the nurses are seeking to address staffing concerns at the hospital. Today's contract talks broke off with the hospital making no movement to improve its proposal to address the nurses' key concerns regarding mandatory overtime, which needs to include the clear right for nurses to refuse mandatory overtime if she or he is too fatigued to provide safe patient care and language linking mandatory overtime to the hospital's staffing conditions.

"The nurses are deeply disappointed that the hospital has taken such a hard line stand and refuses to negotiate any further to reach a settlement," said Linda McMahon, co-chair of the nurses' bargaining unit. "We had come to the table hoping to resolve a variety of issues still outstanding to settle this contract and the hospital has patently refused to offer any additional proposals even though we had made a counter-proposal on salary and were making progress towards resolution of the mandatory overtime issue. It is clear to us from this hard line stand that this hospital is pushing these nurses to strike – which is something none of us wants but it seems inevitable unless the hospital changes its position at the table and engages in good safe negotiations."

According to the Massachusetts Nurses Association, the labor union representing the Brockton nurses, the last proposal made by the hospital failed to include contract language that holds the hospital accountable for providing safe staffing, thereby preventing the future need to use mandatory overtime. They have also not accepted the nurses' language granting the nurse the unrestricted right to refuse mandatory overtime if he or she believes they are too fatigued or ill to provide safe patient care.

Backgrounder

On April 23, the nurses voted 330 - 68 to authorize the union's negotiating committee to call a strike if the hospital continues to refuse to address the nurses' key concerns. In the last three years, inadequate staffing and mandatory overtime have been a regular occurrence at the facility. Since January, more than 80 nurses have been forced to work extra hours or entire shifts to compensate for a lack of appropriate staff.

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