TUFTS NURSES BACK AT THE TABLE
Seek better staffing, pay; strike looms Wednesday
Tufts Medical Center nurses will return to the negotiating table today to push for better staffing, benefits and higher pay, though the possibility of reaching a resolution with the hospital is getting slimmer as a strike planned for next Wednesday nears.
“I feel like the hospital is absolutely embedded in their position and feel like they are preparing for the strike,” said Mary Havlicek, a registered nurse at Tufts and co-chairwoman of the Massachusetts Nurses Association bargaining unit. “We feel like we’ve been backed into a corner.”
The hospital has said it will use 300 temporary nurses during the potential one-day strike and subsequent four-day lockout, which is set to begin at 7 a.m. Wednesday.
Today’s negotiations, scheduled to begin at 10 a.m., are expected to be focused on improved staffing, wage improvements aimed at maintaining the nurses that work at the hospital, pension protections and other improvements.
Nurses say replacement staffers won’t be able to manage the heavy workload or complicated nature of the hospital’s medical cases.
“Even being an experienced nurse with many years of nursing experience in other academic teaching hospitals, you can’t just walk in with a couple days of training off-site and be able to function at full capacity,” Havlicek said.
But Tufts spokeswoman Rhonda Mann said the hospital is well prepared for the strike and officials have spent weeks finding the “exact type of nurses we need for patients who are very sick.”
“Would we rather have our own nurses here? Yes, we would,” Mann said. “But our nurses have said through the union they want to take this time to walk out.”
Mann said patients will begin receiving calls on Monday to let them know their procedures and appointments will resume as usual.
Mann also said there will be added security, Boston cops and “ambassadors at every door” to help patients navigate potential issues caused by pickets.
The hospital is working with U.S. Nursing staffing agency, and the stand-in staff will each receive $65 an hour.
In an email to Tufts nurses, the chief nursing officer said four members of the MNA bargaining committee are on vacation this week.
“So while Tufts Medical Center is writing checks for millions of dollars and time is slipping by, we are pulling money from reserves that are close to dry and impacting our financial health, MNA leaders are posting on social media about what a great time they are having on vacation,” Therese Hudson-Jinks wrote in her email, adding, “Keep in mind, the MNA controlled the decision to call for a strike and the timing of the strike notice. It appears the MNA was true to its words in hoping to hurt this hospital.”