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St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester says it’s offering increased staffing and extended contract terms to the Massachusetts Nurses Association ahead of a planned nurses strike.
The hospital officials presented the offer during Monday night’s negotiating session. This comes after the group of 800 nurses last week delivered a strike notice to hospital management, saying they’re ready to go on strike starting March 8 amid the contract fight with Dallas-based Tenet Health Care.
The fight over the new contract is centered on staffing issues and patient care conditions.
“This offer represents a good faith effort to resolve the issues and reach an agreement,” Carolyn Jackson, Saint Vincent CEO, said in a statement. “It is an improvement of our existing, contracted staffing levels, which are already considered among the best of all Massachusetts hospitals, and keeps the competitive wage increases and bonus we had offered previously. In sum, it’s an outstanding offer intended to attract and retain a qualified nursing staff to serve our community.”
The new staffing guidelines in the offer include adding COVID-19 staffing guidelines during the declared State of Emergency. That would mean no nurse on a medical/surgical floor
would be assigned more than four coronavirus patients, and no nurse in the Progressive Care Unit would be assigned more than two coronavirus patients.
The hospital also maintained its offer to add a dedicated Critical Care float position.
“The staffing guideline additions reflect our commitment to reach an agreement and willingness to address staffing concerns specific to our operations,” Jackson said. “We have continued to indicate to the MNA that we will not consider across-theboard staffing ratios like those rejected by voters in the statewide ballot question in 2018. That issue should be addressed
through appropriate state legislative channels.”
Also in the offer, the hospital extended the contract expiration date to December 2024.
“This extended offer will provide potential wage increases up to 36% for some nurses,” Jackson said. “We are hopeful for a positive response and request that the MNA leadership withdraws the strike notice. It is in the best interest of our nurses and community to prioritize reaching an agreement rather than focusing on strike preparations.”
Ahead of the first negotiating session since the nurses issued their official notice to strike, a co-chair of the nurses local bargaining unit said they’re
“always ready and willing to negotiate with management to reach a settlement for a fair contract to avert the need to strike.”
“We look forward to hearing from Tenet and hope they are finally ready to come to the table with a serious proposal to increase staffing and provide nurses the resources we need to provide the care and protection our patients expect and deserve,” added Marlena Pellegrino, a nurse at the hospital. “If that is the case, we will negotiate as long as it takes to reach an agreement.”
The Massachusetts Nurses Association did not immediately respond to comment on the hospital’s offer Monday night.