Nurses to push for incentive pay, ‘adequate PPE’

Nurses treating COVID-19 patients at the two hospitals in southeastern Connecticut are preparing to demand corporate leadership provide them with adequate personal protective equipment, “hazard pay” and pay when they’re forced to quarantine due to exposure to the disease.

In separate online drives, nurses, tech professionals and other health care workers represented by AFT Connecticut, an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers, are seeking signatures on petitions aimed at the Yale New Haven Health System, which owns Lawrence + Memorial and Westerly hospitals, and Hartford HealthCare, which owns Backus Hospital.

AFT locals representing workers at Windham Hospital in Willimantic and Natchaug Hospital, a psychiatric facility in Mansfield, also are participating in the Hartford HealthCare petition, according to Matt O’Connor, an AFT Connecticut spokesman.

“We are calling on Yale New Haven Health System to treat Lawrence + Memorial Hospital employees and New London with respect and dignity during this crisis,” the three AFT locals representing L+M workers say in their petition, which demands adequate PPE for all employees; incentive pay; workman’s comp “without hassle”; paid quarantine time for COVID-19 exposures; and a “signed COVID-19 agreement,” for which no details are listed.

Debbie Wyzatecki, president of the L+M nurses’ union, said nurses plan to gather between 2 and 4 p.m. Wednesday outside the hospital’s Montauk Avenue entrance to call attention to the situation.

“It’s not marching, not bullhorning,” she said. “We’ll just be standing outside on the sidewalk in our scrubs and PPE, holding signs. We just want to make the point that our nurses are getting sick and having to stay at home. There’s five (L+M staff) who’ve come down with COVID that we know of.”

A Yale New Haven official said the unions’ concerns are being addressed.

“All of our front-line caregivers are heroes, without question,” said Vin Petrini, a Yale New Haven senior vice president, chief policy and communications officer. “We’ve been able to provide appropriate and adequate supplies across the system as well as at L+M for clinical, and nonclinical staff. … I’m not sure where they’re going with this.”

In regard to “hazard” or bonus pay, Petrini said Yale New Haven Health announced last month that it would pay all employees a “COVID achievement award” equal to 5% of their earnings from the first of the year through May 9. The bonuses are to be paid later this month.

“Hospitals are facing staggering financial challenges, but we know our people are working in an extraordinary environment,” he said.

Petrini said employees are allowed to pursue workers’ compensation, adding that they are eligible for up to 80 hours of paid time off. He said that as of a week ago, about 600 of Yale New Haven Health’s 28,000 employees had tested positive for COVID-19 and had quarantined for 14 days.

Patrick Green, L+M’s president and chief executive officer, said he personally monitors his staff’s needs on a daily basis.

“Our staff have not been without PPE during this pandemic, period,” he said in a statement. “This is difficult work and highly stressful for our staff and they are doing a phenomenal job. Our people are true heroes, especially those who are providing direct care to the COVID-19 patients. They inspire us all and we value and respect them too much to not provide the protective gear needed in this battle.”

The petition drive organized by leaders of the AFT unions representing Backus nurses and health care workers demands that Hartford HealthCare leadership “respect collective bargaining and provide the workers on the front lines of this crisis with safe working conditions and hazard pay.”

Sherri Dayton, president of the Backus nurses’ union and a member of the L+M union representing the Visiting Nurse Association of Southeastern Connecticut, said Monday night that nurses have had to reuse N95 respirator masks because of shortages, a practice she said puts both nurses and their patients at risk. She said protocols for the deployment of protective gear should be based on science and not the level of supplies.

Hartford HealthCare did not respond to a request for comment. The hospital network has extended its contract with the Backus nurses’ union, which was set to expire Monday, through the end of July.

Eastern Connecticut has had far fewer cases of COVID-19 than other parts of the state, particularly Fairfield, Hartford and New Haven counties. As of Monday, L+M was treating 18 patients who had tested positive for the disease and Backus six. Westerly Hospital had one COVID-19 patient.