For more than a month and a half, Saint Vincent Hospital’s administration and hundreds of nurses have been locked in a tense strike over staffing levels.
The standoff comes at a crossroads time for unions: their number of members has been on a steady decline for decades, and a high-profile unionization vote among Amazon warehouse workers in Alabama was voted down in early April.
At the same time, unions have gained strength at two other healthcare spots in Central Massachusetts: UMass Medical School in Worcester and Milford Regional Medical Center. The federal government has two strong union backers in President Joe Biden and Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, the former Boston mayor.