When: March 27 from 2 – 5 p.m.
Where: Outside the NSMC Main Entrance at 81 Highland Ave, Salem, MA
After months of negotiations, the 600 nurses of North Shore Medical Center in Salem will hold an informational picket on Thursday, March 27 in an effort to negotiate a fair contract with Partners Health Care. While Partners has generated more than $9 billion in revenue and $352 million in profits over the past year, they are demanding the unbridled right to increase the floating of nurses to compensate for staffing shortages at the hospital; and they are demanding that nurses agree to a 50 percent cut to their stepped salary scale (going from 4% to 2% between steps).
At a time when they are attempting to shortchange the nurses and endanger patients, Partners has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on a mandatory training program designed to make nurses “more efficient” by assembling Mr. Potato Head toys.
The nurses are outraged because they are among the lowest paid nurses in the Partners system, and no other Partners nurse has been asked to accept a cut to their salary steps, and all the other Partners nurses that have negotiated new contracts have received a pay increase.
