School nurses across Massachusetts wage battles for professional parity

	West Springfield school nurses collecting signatures outside a local supermarket.

One of the great injustices for nurses working in education is the lack of professional pay parity for school nurses with teachers and other professionals in educational systems—even though school nurses have the same education and licensure as teachers.

Only 82 of the 386 school districts in the commonwealth offer pay equity with teachers and other professionals, according to the Massachusetts School Nurse Organization. This unfortunate trend is happening at a time when the demands on school nurses are greater than ever before and the requirements of school nurses are greater than for almost any other area of direct nursing care.

In this issue of the Massachusetts Nurse, we focus on some local bargaining units that are tackling the issue of pay parity for school nurses head on.

	Gayle Hyle, co-chair of the bargaining unit, talks to reporters.

Methuen nurses win parity
After more than 18 months of negotiations, the Methuen School Nurses reached agreement with the Methuen School Committee. The bargaining process, which began in May 2004, was brought to a conclusion in January 2006 with the nurses agreeing to a four-year agreement whereby parity with the teachers’ salaries was obtained effective Sept. 1, 2005.

The nurses’ victory was born of their decision to “get political” and to build a broad coalition of support for their cause.

“We knew if we were going to win this fight, it was going to have to be approved by the school committee, however, some of the members of the committee were the roadblock to a resolution,” said Patricia Comeau, a school nurse coordinator for the Methuen schools and the chair of the MNA local bargaining unit. “We knew that success depended on us helping to educate and elect school committee candidates who would support us.”

This meant expanding a typical union negotiation strategy into a political strategy. Comeau began organizing candidate forums with school committee candidates during last fall’s election cycle.

“We had all our nurses there and we used the opportunity to introduce ourselves and to explain the role and value of school nurses, as well as to question the candidates on their support for our issues,” Comeau explained. “These presentations open their eyes, and it was clear we had made an impact.
The proof of the success of their effort was that candidates began to make public statements in their campaign about their support for school nurses. Later, after elections, the school committee publicly announced that settling the contract was its first priority. True to their word; the contract was settled within 18 days of the new year.

Comeau also pointed to the nurses’ efforts to reach out to other municipal employee groups for support.

“We reached out to the teachers union, the police and fire fighters union to educate them about their issues, and all of them became vocal supporters,” Comeau said. “While the mayor and other officials might now want to listen to us, the support of these other unions helped a lot.”

While there were some minor variations on several middle-of-the-scale steps to help facilitate conversion to the teachers’ scale, the two scales are identical at the top and bottom. Moreover, the contract calls for the nurses and teachers to receive the same salary increases for the next three years.

Upon placement on the new parity scale, the school nurses received raises ranging from 10 to 15 percent. Thereafter, the nurses will be paid equal to the teachers and will receive the same salary increases over the life of the agreement.
The previous salary scale for school nurses ranged from $29,871 to $42,528. Under this contract that range will start at $37,063 and will top out at $62,175. The settlement avoided fact-finding and ended nine months of state mediation.

West Springfield parity campaign
West Springfield school nurses, who are deadlocked in a contract dispute with management over their call for professional pay parity with teachers and others in the school system, are taking their case to the public with a media campaign and a petition drive.

The nurses—who have the same education and licensure requirements as teachers and other professionals in the school system—are paid as much as 30 percent less than their professional counterparts. Their second-rate pay comes at a time when the responsibilities of school nurses are greater than ever before. In West Springfield, one in seven children (600 out of 4,000 students) has special health care needs that require the care and monitoring of the 10 professional school nurses. Children not only have asthma, attention deficit disorder, migraine headaches, epilepsy, heart conditions, diabetes, life threatening allergies, arthritis, cerebral palsey and other chronic illnesses, but students are also coming to school needing colostomy care, catheterization, insulin injections, naso-gastric feeding and other complex procedures.

The nurses filed for mediation in late February and in March went public with their story, generating significant publicity—including coverage on local television and radio stations, and sympathetic articles in the main newspapers covering their community. They launched their petition drive on March 31 outside of a local Stop & Shop and gathered hundreds of signatures from parents of school children who recognize the value they bring to the school system. The nurses are now in the process of planning a number of petition drives at local sporting events where parents gather.

The bargaining unit decided to go public after the mayor unexpectedly shut down negotiations over a new contract after just 10 negotiating sessions. Previous to that, the nurses had made a strong case for parity, having developed and showcased a 45-minute presentation on the role and value of school nurses the negotiating team who in turn presented it to the school committee.

Worcester school nurses
Worcester school nurses are also involved in a pitched battle for professional parity, a struggle that has gone on for years. These nurses are working severely understaffed, serving a complex and challenging population of students with severe health needs in one the state’s largest urban centers.

The nurses are also in mediation and, like the Methuen nurses, have seen the need to take their issue to the public and to the polling places. The nurses also held candidate forums for school committee candidates last fall, and also had lawn signs printed up supporting their case for pay parity and improved staffing conditions.

The nurses have engaged in leafleting campaigns in shopping centers and outside their schools, and have talked to the media as part of their effort.