This article first appeared on the Boston Business Journal’s website.
As the union nurses at Saint Vincent Hospital enter their 12th week of a strike, the sides have no plans to return to the bargaining table.
Over 700 of the 800 union nurses at the hospital have been on strike since early March, after the sides have continued to fail to reach an agreement on a new contract. Nurses and administrators most recently met on May 5, and despite calls from legislative leaders, the two sides have yet to return to the table.
Nurses have said the dispute is entirely around staffing, with requests to maintain the current staffing language, impose arbitration language if staffing ratios are violated, and ensure most nurses have at most four patients. Nurses also want additional resource nurses and higher staffing in the emergency room.
“None of the other issues will keep us on strike,” said David Schildmeier, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA). “Those can be resolved. But the strike will never be resolved until the nurses have strong enforceable staffing language that they believe protects their patients.”
Pension plan sought
According to its most recent proposal, a copy of which was obtained by the Business Journal, the hospital has suggested eliminating the current staffing language in favor of one negotiated by union nurses at UMass Memorial Medical Center. The proposed language would allow the hospital to give nurses four or five patients in most areas.
Yet the hospital said issues exist beyond the staffing, with administrators saying the nurses want additional wage increases beyond the currently proposed 3% wage increase, lump sum payment and step increases. Administrators also said the nurses have continued to press for a pension plan to be created.
“They made minimal movement towards resolution, kept things like their pension plan (request), which is ludicrous, and didn’t make any significant concessions,” said Carolyn Jackson, CEO of Saint Vincent. “They’ve given us no indication they want to reach resolution.”
The strike is the third-longest nurses strike in the state’s history so far, behind a six-month strike at Burbank hospital in Fitchburg in 1982, and a 104-day-long strike at Brockton Hospital in 2001.
Ongoing costs
It’s unclear how much the hospital has spent on the strike. In the first five days, administrators spent $5.4 million on replacement nurses. MNA said the hospital hired 200 replacement nurses, and according to hiring notices issued by U.S. Nursing, positions came with $95 to 110 an hour for work between 48 to 60 hours a week.
In the mid-salary range, salaries for 200 replacement nurses would cost the hospital nearly $1 million a week, a number that doesn’t include transportation and lodging costs. The MNA also pointed to $30,000 the hospital is spending daily on police detail. Over 12 weeks, the initial hiring costs, $1 million weekly staffing costs and security costs would total $18.4 million.
Jackson wouldn’t comment on the calculation, but said the lingering costs were among the reasons the hospital had started to hire permanent replacement nurses. An undisclosed number of offers for that staff went out this week, with an initial 102 positions posted.
“We’d be happy to spend these dollars on our nurses if the MNA would be reasonable and come back to the table and agree to staffing language,” Jackson said. “But in the interim we need to spend what we need to spend to provide excellent care at Saint Vincent.”
The union said the hiring push is largely an empty threat to scare the nurses back to work.
“We’re not asking for the moon. We’re ready to go back,” Schildmeier said. “The nurses want to get back to the table and ask every day. ... Now they’re spending money on advertising for nurses to replace. Good luck with that. There aren’t enough nurses in Massachusetts who want to work for this hospital and cross this picket line.”
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