When: Tuesday, October 14, 2025 | 4–5:30 p.m.
Where: Airport Rotary area near Nantucket Sound and CVS, Route 28, Hyannis, MA
Who: The RNs of the Visiting Nurse Association (VNA) of Cape Cod Healthcare, represented by the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA), joined by patients, families, and community supporters
HYANNIS, Mass. — Nurses with the Visiting Nurse Association (VNA) of Cape Cod Healthcare (CCHC) will hold a public support rally on Tuesday, October 14, to protest CCHC’s refusal to offer a fair contract that addresses unsafe staffing, uncompetitive wages, and chronic recruitment and retention problems that threaten patient care.
The action follows the nurses’ overwhelming rejection of CCHC’s so-called “last, best, and final” offer, which they say fails to fix the growing crisis in home care. VNA nurses, who provide essential home health and hospice services across Cape Cod and the Islands, previously voted 96% in favor of authorizing a three-day strike if progress is not made at the bargaining table.
“This is a crisis … a crisis of care,” said Mike Barry, RN, bargaining unit co-chair. “CCHC does not want to resolve the problems plaguing the VNA — especially unsafe staffing and the ongoing loss of nurses due to low pay.”
At the center of the dispute is CCHC’s refusal to provide VNA nurses with the same percentage wage increases recently won by hospital nurses at Cape Cod and Falmouth Hospitals, who ratified a contract in July with a 19% raise over three years. VNA nurses, who already earned about 20% less, were offered only 10% over three years — a gap that would widen the pay disparity to nearly 29%.
“We aren’t asking for equal pay with hospital nurses — just equal respect,” said Diane Munsell, RN, case manager and bargaining unit secretary. “We’re asking for the same fair percentage raises to keep up with the cost of living, which in turn will allow VNA management to recruit and retain permanent RNs.”
Background: A Critical Workforce in Crisis
VNA nurses care for thousands of Cape and Islands residents each year, including patients discharged from hospitals earlier and sicker than ever. They deliver complex care independently in patients’ homes — managing wound vacs, IV therapies, ostomies, and other advanced treatments — while coordinating with physicians in real time.
Nearly one-third of the current VNA staff are traveling nurses, an unstable and expensive practice that undermines continuity of care. CCHC spends hundreds of thousands of dollars each month on temporary staff, yet refuses to strengthen the permanent workforce by improving wages, workload, and working conditions.
