WORCESTER The 800 registered nurses at St. Vincent Hospital in contract negotiations with Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare voted Wednesday to authorize their negotiating committee to call for a strike if Tenet management refuses to increase staffing levels during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis and beyond.
David Schildmeier, spokesman for the Massachusetts Nurses Association, said there was an overwhelming yes vote to authorize the strike, which will take place in approximately 10 days if Tenet and the nurses negotiation committee cannot come to an agreement.
The vote came the day before the parties’ next negotiation session, slated for Thursday, according to the nurses.
According to a news release from the nurses, Tenet refuses to heed nurses’ call to increase staffing levels to better protect patients. Nurses at St. Vincent are each responsible for five patients, and they are asking that the nurse-to-patient ratio be reduced to one-to-four by adding more staff.
Share this article
Share this article
WORCESTER, Mass., Jan. 6, 2021 /PRNewswire/ As patient care conditions continue to deteriorate at Worcester-based St. Vincent Hospital, the 740 registered nurses are stepping up their efforts to alert the public and to pressure their for-profit employer of the need to increase staffing levels to better protect their patients during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. Starting today, a contingent of nurses from the hospital will commence daily picketing outside the facility until an agreement is reached with recalcitrant administrators to place the safety of patients ahead of the Dallas-based corporation s primary concern of boosting profit margins for shareholders.
Nurses at Saint Vincent Hospital in Worcester set to begin daily picketing in effort to reach agreement with administration
Updated Jan 06, 2021;
Nurses at Saint Vincent Hospital plan to picket daily beginning on Tuesday to demonstrate dissatisfaction with what they call deteriorating patient care conditions by picketing daily in an effort to apply pressure to the facility’s administration.
The first demonstration will start at 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday and last an hour. According to the Massachusetts Nurses Association, picketing will occur daily until an agreement is reached “to place the safety of patients ahead of.boosting profit margins for shareholders.”