Please cross post to your lists, and visit the MNA web site at http://www.massnurses.org for directions and other information on how you may support these courageous nurses.

Three Important Reminders:

Striking St. Vincent Hospital Nurse to Testify At April 18th Health Care Committee Hearing On Ballot Initiative Measure Opposing For-Profits In State

Sandy Ellis, one of 535 registered nurses currently on strike against Tenet Health Care, the Santa Barbara, California-based for-profit owner of St. Vincent Hospital/ Worcester Medical Center, will provide testimony at hearings being held by the Joint Committee on Health Care on Tuesday, April 18, 2000. Ellis will testify in support of a ballot initiative that among its provisions calls for a moratorium on future conversions of non-profit health care facilities to for-profit status. The hearings will be held at the State House in Gardner Auditorium beginning at 11 a.m. The State House is a short walk uphill from Park Street MBTA Station on the Green & Red Lines in Boston. Parking may be available in the underground garage beneath Boston Common. Gardner Auditorium is in the basement of the State House in the right-hand corner as you approach the State House from downtown. There are plenty of seats in the auditorium, and we don't want them all filled with corporate lobbyists out to maintain the unjust status quo in health care.

Candlelight Vigil Tuesday Evening Co-Sponsored by Worcester/Framingham Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO, and the Community Caring for Nurses

Worcester/Framingham Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO, and Community Caring for Nurses (Newly Formed Community Activist Group) to Host Candlelight Vigil to Support the St. Vincent Hospital/Worcester Medical Center Nurses and Their Families: April 18, 2000 from 7:30 - 9:00 p.m., Summer St. Entrance, Worcester Medical Center. The Worcester Medical Center abuts the Centrum. The easiest way for out-of-towners to get there is to get off the Massachusetts Turnpike at I-290 and follow it east into downtown Worcester. Follow the signs to the Centrum. Look for the picketers.

Plan Ahead:

The St. Vincent nurses will rally April 19th (Wednesday evening): as during prior rallies, we need nurses and other volunteers to cover for them on the picket lines outside the Worcester Medical Center while they meet: 5:30 PM until 8:30 or 9:00 PM, or as long as possible.

Some interesting sites for surfers bearing expressions of support for the strikers:

http://www.florenceproject.org/

http://ideanurse.com/index1.html

http://www.califnurses.org/cna/collect/radmessmass.html

http://www.nursingworld.org/dlwa/letters/

(There are many others. As you come upon them, continue to let me know so I can pass them along. Many have chat rooms attached where expressions of support can be broadcast. I found a couple today, so I typed out messages urging readers to access the MNA web page to find out how to lend support to the St. Vincent nurses. - Editor)