MASSACHUSETTS NURSE NEWSLETTER :: October 2006

UMass RNs set to strike on Oct. 26 against concessions

The 840 registered nurses at UMass Memorial/University campus have served notice on the hospital that they plan to go out on strike on Oct. 26 at 6 a.m. The strike authorization was approved by 94 percent of those voting in late September?the largest strike authorization vote in MNA history.

After posting a record $94 million in profits in 2005 and projecting another $47 million for 2006, the hospital is demanding a number of significant concessions—concessions the nurses believe compromise their ability to retain and recruit staff needed to deliver quality patient care at the region’s only level one trauma center. Adding insult to injury, after demanding the concessions from the nurses, the hospital announced it awarded its CEO John O’Brien a 38 percent pay hike and that it intends to invest more than $68 million this year in capital improvements.

“We reached a point where we have no other alternative,” said Kathie Logan, RN, a nurse at UMMC and chairperson of the bargaining unit. “No one wants a strike but management continues to demand major concessions at a time of record, and unprecedented, profits. Our members will not give back 25 years of gains when the institution is in its strongest financial position in its history.”

Key issues in dispute include management’s demand to delete the nurses’ defined benefit
pension plan for new employees; dramatically increase health insurance costs; reduce family medical leave benefits; and gut “reduction in force language.” In addition the hospital is proposing to drastically cut the nurses’ salary scale, which would increase the number of steps in the scale while reducing the top step from $49.86 to $46.16. The hospital’s proposals would mean the nurses could lose as much as $8,000 per year in compensation, with some nurses losing more than $15,000.

The nurses’ pension is a benefit guaranteed to them under the law that allowed
the privatization of UMMC in 1997. There is no justification for taking this away from the nurses.

According to Logan, “If the hospital has its way, patients will suffer as many
of the most qualified and experienced nurses would leave for Boston where they
would be paid as much as $10 per hour ($20,000 per year) more, with better benefits.”
“While the unit is in preparation for a strike, the negotiating committee is hoping that management will come to its senses and agree to our last and final proposal before the October 26 deadline,” added Logan.

Those nurses who wish to support the UMass nurses in their strike can do so in a number of ways, including joining them on their picket line, making a donation to their strike fund and/or by calling their CEO John O’Brien at 508.334.0100 to register your outrage.
You can send donations to the UMass nurses strike office, which is located in the new MNA Region 2 headquarters, 365 Shrewsbury Street, Worcester, MA 01604.
To learn more about the strike and what you can do to help, visit the UMass nurses’ Web page, or call the strike office at 508.756.5800.