October 9, 2002

Carney Hospital RNs To Candlelight Vigil on October 13 at 6:30 pm

As Contract Talks Stall Over Salary, Health Insurance, and Contract Takeaways, Carney Nurses Pay Scale is Lowest in Region

DORCHESTER, Mass.—Registered nurses at Carney Hospital in Dorchester will hold an candlelight vigil outside the entrance to the facility on Sunday, Oct. 13 2002 at 6:30p.m., as contract talks continue to stall over salary, health insurance and the hospital s demand that the nurses give back a number of existing contract benefits to fund their own raises.

While Carney Hospital nurses are among the lowest paid nurses in the Greater Boston area, they have been able to maintain a low vacancy rate and retain an experienced nursing staff because of the package of benefits provided by its strong union contract. Now the hospital is seeking to cut a number of benefits in the contract and increase the nurses health insurance costs by 10% while offering a salary increase that will keep Carney well below the market for nurses.

The Carney Hospital contract dispute comes at a time when the health care industry is in the midst of a growing national shortage of nurses, which was driven by a decade where nurses saw a dramatic increase in their patient assignments, a deterioration of their working conditions, and pay rates that have remained virtually flat.

Here in Massachusetts, hospitals are now scrambling to recruit sufficient numbers of registered nurses from a very small pool of nurses still willing to work under current conditions. Nurses, frustrated with their pay and working conditions, are moving from facility to facility in search of the best environment.

We have fought long and hard for a contract that does everything hospitals are attempting to do in the face of a nursing shortage, which is to retain a high quality nursing staff, said Marie Murray, tri-chair of the nurses bargaining unit at Carney. If they weaken our existing contract and fail to bring us in line with competing hospitals, we are in danger of losing valuable staff, which will impact the quality of care we deliver.

More than 275 nurses are represented by the Massachusetts Nurses Association at Carney Hospital. They have been negotiating their contract since June 21, 2001, with 10 negotiating sessions held to date, with the last session held before a Federal mediator. The nurses contract will expire on November 1, 2002. Nurses at the facility are outraged by the hospital s stance in the negotiations.

Currently, the nurses salaries are up to 7% below their counterparts at Faulkner Hospital, Quincy Medical Center and Caritas Norwood Hospital. In comparison to Boston teaching hospitals, Carney salaries are as much as 20% less.

Adding to the nurses frustration is the fact that they have worked with the hospital over the years to hold down their salary demands to help the facility survive troubled times. In May of 2001, hospital management asked the nurses to accept admittedly meager pay increases to help it maneuver out of its financial troubles at the time.

They told us to help them out and when the boat was turned around, the nurses would be rewarded, Murray said. Well, now the hospital is back on its feet, yet they have failed to honor their promise to the nurses.

The hospital is offering the nurses only 14% over 3 ½ years, which will keep them well behind nurses at surrounding hospitals.

In addition, they have tied any offer of a raise to the nurses agreement to make significant reductions in their benefits package. The hospital has proposed limits on vacation and sick time accruals, freezing current vacation accruals at current pay rates, reducing their on call pay benefits, while increasing the nurses co-payments for health insurance by 10%.

Management is asking the Carney nurses to fund their own pay increases by decreasing existing benefits. This is not only unreasonable, it is an insult to every nurse at this facility who has sacrificed to ensure this hospital s very survival, Murray added.