Message from bulletin editor Sandy Eaton, RN:
Over five hundred nurses have been on strike for twenty-five days now in
Worcester, Massachusetts, USA, against the Tenet Corporation based in Santa
Barbara, California, USA, the second-largest for-profit acute-care hospital
chain in the United States (and, hence, in the world). After two years of
negotiations, these heroic nurses, members of the Massachusetts Nurses
Association, are striving to secure a first contract, one that does not
include Tenet's demand for the right to impose mandatory eight-hour overtime
shifts on nurses completing their regularly-scheduled eight-hour shifts.
Patient safety comes first, and will not be compromised by these nurses, the
most professional nurses in Massachusetts right now. Support for their
principled stand has been overwhelming, but so far inadequate to bring a
resolution to this impasse. Organized labor in general, and organized nursing
in particular, together with the widest possible range of people opposed to
what health care is becoming in the United States, will force Tenet to
negotiate in good faith and bring this strike to a just conclusion. By
supporting these nurses in Worcester, we are moving as well against threats
to universal access to quality, affordable, portable, comprehensive and
democratically controlled health care in countries around the world where
health care has been declared a fundamental human right but is now under
attack by such corporations as Tenet and their political allies seeking to
'Americanize' their systems through privatization, deregulation and
corporatization. Strong messages opposed to unsafe clinical situations and
supporting these striking nurses should be sent to:
Tenet/St. Vincent CEO Bob Maher
Phone: 508-363-6211
Fax: 508-798-1117
Email: