Monthly
Status Report
October,
2005
The Massachusetts State
House rally by state-employed RNs and health professionals
on Wednesday October 26th was a rousing success, with
hundreds in attendance, making a strong showing in
support of a fair contract to improve the recruitment
and retention of the professional staff needed to
properly care for the state’s most vulnerable
residents.
A photo of the event
appeared in the Boston Globe, with the State House
News Service providing an audiotape of most of the
proceedings, including the comments from Senators
Marc Pacheco and Ed Augustus and Rep. Peter Koutoujian,
as well as the comments of MNA Unit 7 Bill Fyfe. Click
here to listen.
Stories also appeared
in the Eagle Tribune and the Lowell Sun. After demonstrating
outside the state house, the crowd marched to the
Governor's office to see if he would meet with them
to discuss this situation. He refused, as the crowd
filled the building with the chant: “Be Fair
to Those Who Care,” and “Shame on You.”
As the stalled talks now enter the 850th day, the
MNA is committed to stepping up efforts to pressure
the Romney administration to do the right thing and
negotiate a fair contract.
Chanting
"Hey, ho, Romney's got to go!" hundreds
of nurses and advocates marched in front of the State
House Wednesday marking 849 days without a new contract.
Sens. Marc Pacheco and Edward Augustus and Rep. Peter
Koutoujian spoke at the rally.
Listen
| Release
[View
more photos]
http://www.lowellsun.com/fastsearchresults/ci_3156823
State hospital nurses rally
to end 2-year contract stalemate
By ANNIE SHERMAN, Sun Statehouse Bureau
Lowell Sun
BOSTON—More than 150 chronic
care nurses and their supporters, including some from
the Lowell area, rallied at the Statehouse yesterday,
hoping Gov. Mitt Romney would hear their demands to
end a more than two-year wait for a new contract.
The nurses have worked 850 days without
a contract, receiving salaries and benefits approved
in the contract signed more than four years ago.
Marty Miraglia, a Dracut nurse who
has worked at Tewksbury State Hospital for 13 years,
said she and her fellow nurses care for patients with
chronic diseases, mental illnesses, violent disorders
and handicaps -- some of the most demanding patients
to treat.
Yet, she said, she and her coworkers
are paid 30 percent less than their colleagues at
private hospitals. She said that makes it difficult
to recruit and retain nurses who want to stay at the
state hospitals, but struggle to pay their own bills
because of the low pay.
Salaries for nurses at state hospitals
range from $39,436 to $64,188, while salaries for
nurses at private hospitals are much more, said David
Schildmeier, spokesman for the Massachusetts Nurses
Association, which represents 1,800 health-care professionals
statewide that work for state-run facilities.
At Merrimack Valley Hospital in Haverhill,
nurses earn $51,604 to start and can earn a top scale
of $83,033. Nurses at Lawrence General Hospital earn
as much as $82,888 in the top of their profession.
Mary-Ellen Cooper, a 17-year veteran
of Tewksbury State Hospital where she is a nurse-manager,
said many nurses simply quit because of the low pay.
“The more money we have, the
more nurses will stay and the better patient care
we can provide. It's a no-brainer,” she said.
Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom approached
the crowd that assembled outside the governor's office.
“The job of the union is to
fight for its members, and the governor's job is to
stand up for the interest of the taxpayers. So everyone
is doing their job,” he said. “I expect
that by the end of the day, we will reach an agreement
that is fair to both the union and the Commonwealth.”
Miraglia, who is on the executive
board for negotiating the contract with the state,
said Tewksbury hospital is understaffed and the nurses
are overworked and underpaid.
“To keep it safe, we're running
an overtime budget in the millions,” she said.
“If we were a private company, we'd be bankrupt
by now.”
Cooper said she works two eight-hour
overtime shifts per week just to pay her bills. Colleague
Donna McMahon, a Lowell nurse at Tewksbury State Hospital
for 25 years, said she is headed in that same direction.
“We love our patients, we love
our jobs, but how many years will go by before we
have a contract?” she said. “This is a
safety issue, and the fact is that we want to be treated
fairly.”
