Massachusetts Nurse :: November/December 2005

	Picketing outside Becker College

Worcester: Picketing a sham symposium

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The MNA, along with nearly 100 nurses, community leaders and labor members from throughout central Massachusetts, conducted an Oct. 28 demonstration outside what was billed as a "symposium" on competing measures to deal with the state's in-hospital nursing crisis.

The event was co-sponsored by state Sen. Richard Moore (D-Uxbridge) and Worcester-based Becker College. The MNA was originally invited by both parties to participate in the "nurse workforce symposium," but it rejected the invitation to participate—calling it a "sham" created by Moore, the Massachusetts Hospital Association and UMass Memorial Health Care as part of their campaign to derail legislation that would require hospitals to provide safe RN-to-patient ratios as a means of protecting patients and improving the quality of patient care in the state's hospitals.

In a letter to Becker College President Kenneth Zirkle, Julie Pinkham, RN and the MNA's executive director, wrote, "Instead of participating in the event inside the college, members and supporters of the MNA will picket the event and hold a rally on the street outside the college in order to tell the public what 'real nurses' know is true: that there must be a limit to the number of patients a nurse is assigned at one time."

Real nurses picket the sham symposium at Becker College.

According to the MNA, "The Becker symposium was neither unbiased nor balanced. Instead, it was a forum aimed at supporting and disseminating the hospital industry's position on this issue. Your co-sponsor and keynote speaker, Senator Richard Moore, serves as the lead sponsor and chief proponent of legislation filed by the hospital industry in opposition to RN-to-patient ratios."

Central to the MNA's criticism of the event was its highlighting of a controversial report generated by UMass Medical School at the request of Moore.

UMass Medical School is closely aligned with one of the state's largest hospital networks—the UMass Memorial Health Care system, which includes the UMass Medical Center, UMass Memorial Hospital, and UMass Marlborough—all affiliates of the Massachusetts Hospital Association. According to the MNA this connection, along with Moore's sponsorship of MHA's legislation, created a clear conflict of interest and obviated any claim of objectivity by the study's authors.

"Regrettably, the report is a sham," expanded Pinkham. "It contains glaring inaccuracies, and it lacks substantive data collection. It reads as though it was written by the MHA, as, in effect, it was."

The MNA's presence outside of Becker College on the morning of the symposium was strong, and for more than two hours a growing crowd of nurses and supporters walked the picket line that ran in front of the symposium's entrance—many of them carrying signs that read, "No MOORE Stalling! Safe Ratios Now." Members from other local unions and organizations also showed their support, including those from the Central Massachusetts Labor Council, the APW and the Steel Workers.

"We are here today to expose the cynical tactics of the hospital industry to maintain the dangerous status quo," said MNA president Beth Piknick at the demonstration. "We call upon Senator Moore and all interested parties to stop the stalling and to begin negotiations on meaningful legislation to protect the safety of patients in our hospitals."

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