800 nurses have been on strike for 8 weeks against a major hospital corporation in Saint Vincent Hospital in Worcester Massachusetts, demanding increased staffing levels. The hospital is part of Tenet Healthcare, a major Dallas-based company.
The strike came after negotiations for a new union contract had dragged on since November of 2019 including 32 sessions between the parties. The nurses voted overwhelmingly on Feb. 10 to authorize the strike, which began at 6 a.m. on March 8.
Tenet has only met with the Massachusetts Nurses Association once since then, and their minimal offer was rejected as insufficient.
The union is demanding a 4-1 patient-to-nurse ratio on medical/surgical floors, but also wants more emergency department staffing and more nurses to help with urgent and critical situations on the medical/surgical floors.
Tenet recently reported more than $97 million in profits and revenues in excess of $4.7 billion for the first quarter of the year, following the posting of $400 million in profits for 2020.
They could well afford to implement the MNA staffing proposal that could end this strike if they simply spent the $45 million they are believed to have already spent to prolong the strike on the proposed staffing improvements the nurses are seeking. The union’s aim is to put staffing standards on a par with other hospitals in Worcester and across the state.
[Photo collage is from https://forms.massnurses.org/we-stand-with-st-vincents-nurses/]
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