(Editor's Note: This is the last regular strike bulletin on Saint Vincent
Hospital/Worcester Medical Center. From what I've heard, it's helped fill an
information gap in some quarters and build unity. A couple of weeks ago,
general strikes occurred in India, Norway and South Africa, all directed at
the hardships imposed by corporate-driven globalization. I recall a few
paragraphs in the newspaper about South Africa, but nothing about the other
countries. If I hadn't been on a labor-oriented listserv, I would never have
realized the extent of these responses to corporate predation. Although some
media outlets in Massachusetts gave extensive coverage to the strike by
nurses in Worcester, Massachusetts, there seemed to be little coverage beyond
that. The issue of mandatory overtime is pandemic in the United States, where
the corporatization of health care is spreading like wildfire. What the St. V
nurses accomplished is historic in nature, and needs to be replicated
everywhere. A sea change is moving the nursing community throughout the
United States and beyond, with nursing groups and individual nurses examining
their options and potential alliances. I'll take the liberty of forwarding,
whenever appropriate, news of responses to this corporatization of health
care, and look forward to receiving news from you. Below are some messages
regarding the Worcester strike and related nursing issues. At the risk of
leaving someone out and thereby offending friends of nursing and labor, I
also offer a list of web sites that I've seen offer extensive coverage and
support to the striking nurses, with the expectation that we all will find
ways to stay connected and strengthen the bonds of unity. Several weeks ago I
was asked to write an article on the strike for Peacework, a monthly peace
and justice magazine published by the New England office of the American
Friends Service Committee. The strike was won two days before my deadline, so
I've tried to summarize this victory in this article, the first rough draft
of which I've included below. I wish to express my profound gratitude to the
St. Vincent nurses and their elected leadership, whose courage shone through
the darkness, so much so that even Tenet/Worcester CEO Bob Maher saw the
light and proclaimed an ongoing revolution in nursing. Thanks to my mentor in
communications, David Schildmeier from MNA. A special word of thanks to Bill
Bumpus of the Somerville Labor Party Club for posting these bulletins on his
web site, Union Web Service, and creating links for all the email addresses
and web sites mentioned. Maybe he can teach me how to do that! Let's stay
connected! - Sandy Eaton, RN)

-------------------------------------------------

Solidarity Message from MNA Public Communications Director David Schildmeier:

Please support and cross post the message below from our brothers and sisters
at Boston Jobs With Justice.

In Unity,

David Schildmeier
Director of Public Communications
Massachusetts Nurses Association
800-882-2056 x717
508-426-1655 (pager)
dschildmeier@mnarn.org <mailto:dschildmeier@mnarn.org>

Solidarity Alert/Interns Needed!

Support Commercial Actors on Strike Since May 1! No Scab Commercials in
Boston!

Commercial Actors who are members of the Screen Actors'
Guild-AFL-CIO have been on strike nationally since May 1. Tomorrow, crews
will attempt to film the first scab commercial in Boston. Come show your
support for our brothers and sisters in AFTRA/SAG, Charles River Studio, 184
Everett St., Brighton (off Soldiers Field Road near WBZ), 6:30 AM to
noon. For more information call (617) 742-2688.

Ask Governor Cellucci to Honor His Commitment to the Children of
Massachusetts!

Demand that the Governor fund the agreement on staffing the
Department of Social Services which protects abused and neglected children in
the state. Join SEIU Local 509 members in an informational leafletting of
Governor Cellucci's fundraiser Wednesday, May 24, 6-7:00 PM at the Boston
Harbor Hotel, Rowes Wharf. For more information, call (617) 864-6509.

Summer Interns and Volunteers Needed

Jobs with Justice

Do you want to participate in a coalition fighting for workers' rights?
Do you want the opportunity to work with unions, community groups, students,
and faith groups? Do you want to get school credit for doing such work? As an
intern or volunteer at JwJ, you can get involved in the following projects:

* Justice for Nursing Home Workers/Haitian Community Organizing Project
* the Boston Global Action Network
* International Labor Solidarity
* the Labor Page newspaper
* Workers' Rights workshops
* Web site and other communications
* the JwJ national conference this summer in Massachusetts
* helping with our computers
* database upkeep and much more!

With small staff, we have lots to do! If you are interested, please contact
Jobs with Justice, (617) 524-8778 or bostonjwj@mindspring.com
<mailto:bostonjwj@mindspring.com>. Or just drop in and check us out! We're at
3353 Washington St., Jamaica Plain. We hope you'll decide to join us this
summer!

Emerson Hospital Workers' Rally Cancelled

The maintenance employees of IUOE Local 877 negotiated a contract
successfully! For more information, call (781) 769-1877.

----------------------------------------------

Message from St. V Nurse:

Hi Sandy,

Oh my God, what is our profession coming to?? I am glad our contract has been
ratified, but that is only the beginning. How are we to help entice more
people into our profession?

We are a caring and concern group of people. Our efforts are for those who
will follow our choices in the future. It is sad that the mean age of our
nurses is 47. I guess it is not an attractive field anymore.

How can we help this change? I want someone like I am, caring for me when I
am older. I want a person who will put me before all else. How do we instill
this in the future care givers?? The loyalty we have now, does not seem to
exist. Can those of us working foster it in the future students?? I hope so.

Thank you for keeping us informed. Please tell all nurses, we are a unified
group, never to be split. Thanks for all your info. We will always survive
with unity.

Yours in solidarity, Patti Stanton RN

--------------------------------------------------

Message from Boston's Brigham & Women's Hospital Activist:

I just checked the picket-line poll question on the NursingCenter web site -
www.nursingcenter.com. It looks like the answers have become more favorable
to labor..... ( I guess we got the word out!!!)

"Would you cross a picket line when RNs were striking (at your own hospital
or another)?"

Yes: 488 - 8%
No: 5530 - 92%
TOTAL: 6018

Teana Gilinson

--------------------------------------------------

Message to St. V Nurses from Jewish Labor Committee:

Sandra,
On behalf of the entire Jewish community, I write to congratulate you and
the St. Vincent's nurses on your extraordinary victory, your tenacity,
perseverance, and example. I was part of the interfaith delegation from
Boston that visited along with father Ed Boyle and Jonathan Fine, and in
being at the strike headquarters, and marveling at the Candlelight rally
later that evening, I was deeply moved by all of your efforts.
So congratulations and thank you once again on an inspiring victory, and I
look forward to working again with you all in the future.


Sincerely,
Tom
Levinson
New
England Director,
Jewish
Labor Committee

---------------------------------------------------

Message Forwarded by MNA District 2 Vice Chair Mary Marengo:

A man is flying in a hot air balloon and realises he is lost. He reduces
height and spots a man down below. He lowers the balloon further and shouts,
"Excuse me, can you tell me where I am?"

The man below says, "Yes, you're in a hot air balloon, hovering 30 feet above
this field."

"You must be an engineer," says the balloonist.

"I am," replies the man. "How did you know?"

"Well," says the balloonist, "everything you have told me is technically
correct, but it's no use to anyone."

The man below says, "You must be in management."

"I am," replies the balloonist, "but how did you know?"

"Well," says the man, "you don't know where you are, or where you're going,
but you expect me to be able to help. You're in the same position you were
before we met, but now it's my fault."

-----------------------------------------------------

Directory of Valuable Web Sites:

<http://www.massnurses.org/>
<http://www.califnurses.org/>
<http://users.rcn.com/wbumpus/worcester.html>
<http://users.rcn.com/wbumpus/uws.html>
<http://www.florenceproject.org/>
<http://ideanurse.com/>
<http://www.nurseadvocate.org/>
<http://www.afsc.org/peacewrk.htm>

***

The Nursing Revolution Has Only Just Begun

by Sandy Eaton, RN

By the time the 49-day strike against Tenet Healthcare Corporation by 615
Worcester, Massachusetts, nurses ended, not only were the lives of the
participants changed forever, but also the consciousness of nurses throughout
Massachusetts, across the United States and in other countries as well. At
4:50 PM on May 19th, Anne Spellane, co-chair of the Saint Vincent
Hospital/Worcester Medical Center bargaining unit of the Massachusetts Nurses
Association announced the result of the balloting by the rank-and-file on
their first contract. Predictably, ratification was achieved by the lopsided
vote of 358 to 5. The picketers marched one last time around the sprawling
new WMC campus, laid down their picket signs and started to celebrate.

The story begins in 1997 when the Catholic Saint Vincent Hospital was sold to
OrNda, a for-profit hospital chain, which was then bought up to help create
the Tenet Healthcare Corporation, the second largest for-profit acute-care
hospital chain in the United States (and in the world, since no one else does
health care like the US). In the 90s, changes in the way health care was
financed were passed as the state government strove to become
'entrepreneurial.' For the first time, for-profit hospital chains found
Massachusetts a fertile field. New battle lines were drawn.

Sensing danger to her patients and to her license to practice nursing safely,
Anne Spellane gathered a handful of colleagues together and approached MNA
for help in organizing. In 1998, the nurses of Saint Vincent voted in their
new union and bargaining began for a first contract. After two slow years of
negotiating, almost all issues had been settled, except Tenet's insistence on
the right to impose mandatory overtime, a practice that had not been part of
the work life of these nurses up to that point.

Construction of the new $215 million edifice in downtown Worcester called the
Worcester Medical Center neared completion, thanks to significant tax breaks
and other incentives from the City, with April 1st as the target date for a
grand opening. The nurses realized that Tenet's plan was to staff the newly
configured units minimally, to be staffed 'flexibly' with mandatory overtime
of those already on duty if the patient census jumped up on a given day, and
with staff sent home without pay if the census fell. Managed care has heavily
penetrated Massachusetts, and such wide swings in patient census are now
typical. Nurses around the country have been battling the scourge of
mandatory overtime with increasing passion, as they realized that this
practice spawned a far higher rate of possibly fatal medication and other
errors, and a far higher rate of staff illness and accidents, as well as
disrupted family life and risks of abandonment of children by single parents.

Sandy Ellis, speaking on behalf of the striking nurses and the Massachusetts
Nurses Association, offered the following as part of her testimony before the
Joint Committee on Health Care of the Massachusetts legislature in its April
18th hearing on the binding ballot initiative for fundamental health care
reform being pushed by the Coalition for Health Care. "For them (Tenet
Corporation) it is much more cost effective to pay nurses overtime pay,
mandate tired and fatigued nurses to care for very ill patients, rather than
to keep the appropriate number of nurses on the payroll -- even if it places
patients' safety at risk."

Throughout the two years of protracted negotiations, the nurses worked to
build bridges and organize the community around the issues of patient safety
and workers' rights in the face of Santa Barbara-based Tenet Corporation. At
the pre-strike rally on March 30th, almost the entire political leadership of
the Worcester area came to speak on behalf of the nurses, pledging their
unwavering support. For years nurse leader Sandy Ellis had effectively
focused on relations with this group. None of them would attend the gala
celebrations marking the opening of the new hospital, so these celebrations
had to be canceled. Many of these political leaders returned time and again
to the picket line. The entire Massachusetts congressional delegation signed
a letter to Tenet in support of the nurses' position.

In mid-March, the nurses voted three to one to strike over patient safety,
gave Tenet the required ten-day notice of intent to strike and so, the day
before the grand opening, the strike began. The night shift turned the
narcotic keys for each unit over to their supervisors and gathered in the
main lobby of the old Saint Vincent Hospital at 6:30. They marched out the
front door and set up picket lines at both campuses. The scabs arrived at
7:00, consisting of the hundred or so nurses who had voted against the strike
and about 125 professional scabs flown in by U.S. Nursing Corporation, based
in Denver. The situation was most chaotic, so the move into the new hospital
was delayed until April 3rd.

The local media gave thorough coverage to the strike, thanks in great measure
to Sandy Ellis' articulation of the issues and the tireless efforts of MNA's
public communications department. Letters to the editor reflected
overwhelming support from the community and its appreciation of the
overriding issue of patient safety. Although there tended to be spotty
coverage of the strike beyond Massachusetts in the established media, news
spread rapidly by 'word of mouse.' Daily strike bulletins spread from email
list to email list, crossing both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
Nurse-oriented and -run chat rooms buzzed with the news from Worcester. The
MNA web page received over a half million hits in the month of April. Global
awareness grew, with messages to Tenet and to the Worcester nurses coming in
from Abu Dhabi to Australia.

Co-chair Debbie Rigiero had become an integral part of the central labor
council, even though MNA is not part of the AFL-CIO. Organized labor in the
Worcester area, and then throughout the state, understood the issue and what
was at stake. Teachers and teamsters, carpenters and counselors massed on the
picket line, contributed to the strike fund and contacted Tenet with the
demand to listen to the nurses and settle immediately. The Worcester
firefighters, who had lost six of their number in a tragic warehouse fire a
few months before, were especially fervent in their support, not only
marching on the line but opening their adjacent fire station for the nurses'
respite. This labor solidarity peaked when the three largest unions in
Worcester approached Fallon HMO, the largest managed care company in that
part of the state, which has an exclusive contract with Tenet, to pressure
Tenet to negotiate with the nurses or they would take their members
elsewhere. Fallon publicly called for the Tenet CEO to fly out from
California to enter negotiations directly. When no response came, Fallon
began referring its surgical day patients to an off-campus surgicenter
independent of Tenet.

Agencies of the state government which held the mandate for public safety
came under scrutiny. The Department of Public Health routinely reported that
no serious violations of standards of care were to be found within the struck
facility, until its written report was made public revealing that three scabs
had been fired for serious lapses in nursing judgment which threatened
patient safety. The Board of Registration in Nursing was publicly excoriated
by a legislative oversight committee both for its tendency to scapegoat staff
nurses for systemic health facility problems and for its apparent double
standard in swiftly granting licenses to practice nursing to imported scabs
while other candidates had to wait weeks before being able to secure
employment in Massachusetts.

Groups of organized nurses from across Massachusetts regularly came to
Worcester to picket. The United Nurses and Allied Professionals sent large
contingents from Rhode Island, seeing this struggle as part of their own
campaign for safe patient care. Both the California Nurses Association, which
has had extensive dealings with Tenet, and the American Nurses Association
took out ads in the local press critical of Tenet and supportive of the
nurses' issue of safe care. Immense logistical support and suggestions for
effective action came from CNA. ANA organized a picket at the Denver
headquarters of U.S. Nursing Corporation. Magazines such as Nursing Spectrum
which carry ads for agencies that recruit scabs were targeted, and their job
fairs picketed.

On May 5th, 1500 delegates to the annual convention of the Massachusetts
Teachers Association left the nearby convention center and rallied with the
nurses in front of WMC. Senator Ted Kennedy, who had been to Worcester to
address the teachers, came out as well to stand with the nurses and proclaim
the justice of their cause.

National Nurses Day was celebrated on the sidewalk outside the Worcester
Medical Center on May 7th, as elected officials, community activists, labor
leaders, representatives of organized nursing from one end of Massachusetts
to the other, from California, from Michigan, from Rhode Island and New
Hampshire took the microphone and spoke of their undying commitment to safe
patient care. Plans for a national corporate campaign directed at Tenet and
calls for turning Santa Barbara into Seattle were put forth.

On May 10th, intense telephone conversations heated the lines between Santa
Barbara and Washington, and between Washington and Worcester. On the morning
of May 11th, the seventeen members of the nurses' negotiating committee, with
their attorney and staff, flew to Washington to sit across the table from
Tenet executives from California in the offices of Senator Ted Kennedy,
assisted by Representative Jim McGovern. They received from Tenet an offer
almost identical to the last one the nurses themselves had put forth in
negotiations: no full-shift mandated overtime and severe limits on required
overtime up to four hours, with the individual nurse's right to refuse if too
tired or ill. When the team arrived back at Logan International Airport in
Boston that evening, throngs of nurses and other supported were there,
hailing them as conquering heroes, with as much joy and enthusiasm as has
ever been received by any winning sports team.

Worcester Tenet CEO Bob Maher, despite repeated accusations of lying to the
press during the period of protracted negotiations, probably hit the nail on
the head when he told the press, after the tentative agreement had been
reached, that "we are right at the beginning of a revolution in nursing, and
we're at the front end of it. ... We believe nurses throughout the United
States are willing to work long and hard to fight mandatory overtime. We
could have fought back and let this drag out, but that's not good for
anybody. ... We needed to recognize that this is a national trend, and move
on." --from Worcester Telegram & Gazette, 5/12/00

While it's probably too soon to do an exhaustive analysis of this strike, I
think a few lessons jump out. First of all, the Worcester nurses themselves
and their elected leadership are committed, principled and organized. The
central issue, the nurses' mandate to provide safe patient care, was clear
and widely supported. Organized efforts to reach out to the whole community
and to its organized components were systematically undertaken. Effective
work with the media and political leaders was necessary, and made possible by
the prior work. Having access to an organization able to focus its resources
and priorities, such as the Massachusetts Nurses Association, is invaluable.
Local, regional, national and international connectedness multiplies one's
strength immensely. And being at the right moment in history, with growing
revulsion of corporate health care and corporate priorities in general,
maximizes the potential of the moment.

These nurses became the vanguard of the revolution taking place right now in
health care in Massachusetts and across the country. Wherever you live, when
you read this, there are groups organized to put patients before profits. For
readers, whether in Massachusetts or in any other state, opportunities for
effective, timely involvement in the broad movement to make access to
quality, affordable health care a right in the United States are available
through contacting any of these organizations.

Universal Health Care Action Network
2800 Euclid Avenue, Suite 520
Cleveland, OH 44115-2418
Tel: 216/241-8422 or 800/634-4442
Fax: 216/241-8423
<http://www.uhcan.org/>
(UHCAN is a national clearing house for movements working for single-payer
universal health care anywhere in the United States.)

MASS-CARE
The Massachusetts Campaign for
Single Payer Health Care
25 West Street, 2nd Floor
Boston MA 02111
800-383-1973
email masscare@aol.com
<http://www.masscare.org/>
(MASS-CARE is a coalition of nearly sixty local and statewide Massachusetts
organizations united around a goal of winning universal single-payer health
care in Massachusetts.)

Coalition for Health Care
11 Ward Street, Suite 200
Somerville, MA 02143
tel: 617-623-5455
fax: 617-623-7377
<http://www.voteforhealth.org/>
(CHC is a coalition of groups working to pass a binding state-wide ballot
initiative in Massachusetts in November, 2000, that would enact a strong
patients' bill of rights, mandate a universal health care system by 7/1/02
and impose a moratorium of any further conversions of not-for-profit health
care facilities to for-profit status until the universal system is in place.)

Ad Hoc Committee to Defend Health Care
649 Massachusetts Avenue, Suite 8
Cambridge, MA 02139
tel: 617-576-7741
fax: 617-354-1961
<http://www.defendhealthcare.org/>
(Ad Hoc is a group of 5000 nurses, doctors, other health professionals and
patients working to educate the public about the dangers of market medicine
and the need for fundamental health care reform.)

This is the moment to add your voice!

***

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