The above web address is for sending e-mail to Nightline, on ABC News. I
think the Worcester strike/mandatory overtime/for-profit health care would be
a great topic for Ted Koppel. I sent in the suggestion. I was wondering if
you could paste together some of the letters you've received from nurses
across the country and around the world and send them in. If they realize
what a widespread problem this is, it might prompt them to cover it.
------------------------------------------------
Some Chat on Outreach & Endgame:
Sandy:
I have a question. I would like to post your email address on my list so
that nurses could express their support. Would this be okay? Also, this is a
discriminating group ... might their comments end up on the MNA web site?
They wouldn't necessarily object to that, in fact might welcome it, but they
are the sort that would want to know in advance.
Carrie
-----------------------
Hi, Carrie!
I have no objection to posting my email address. Obviously, David
Schildmeier, MNA's Director of Public Communications, and I are swapping
information continuously. It's his judgment call what, with permission, gets
posted on the official MNA site, just as I have to figure out what works in
the daily unofficial strike bulletins. If anyone has any concerns or
preferences, they probably should express them up front. I see the bulletin
as a supplement to David's work, with the focus on building support for the
striking nurses and deepening understanding of the issues coming out of the
strike. I also confess to having the broader agenda of fostering the
development of a global community of nurses and friends seeking fundamental
change in the way health care and nursing are delivered. I've been hearing
similar concerns from nurses in Canada, Australia and Japan, with the
globalization of market forces, market mentality and market morality
threatening health care and care givers just about everywhere. I think I
detect the notion growing that we may have to defeat Tenet in Santa Barbara
if we're going to resolve the situation in Worcester. Plans for a corporate
campaign are being worked on, and I still think we may need to turn Santa
Barbara into Seattle. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Good to hear from you! Keep spreading the word extending that community.
Sandy
-----------------------
Thanks, Sandy. I'll post about it on my list. And do the striking nurses get
to read these messages? I imagine a lot of nurses would want to send them
messages of support, just want to make sure I'm directing them to the
appropriate place.
Carrie
PS A Seattle in Santa Barbara? Oh, DO tell me if that's in the wind. Man
would I love to be there for that! I was at Seattle WTO all week, btw.
------------------------
Hi, Carrie!
A lot of the striking nurses are on the listserv. I know of at least one
local leader (elsewhere in Massachusetts) that prints out the bulletins for
posting on the union bulletin board at work. The best way for messages to
reach the largest number of people, strikers included, is to sent them to MNA
(massnurses@mnarn.org) as well as to me (sandyern@aol.com). Although there
are no plans I'm aware of just yet for marching on Santa Barbara, I've been
dropping hints in many of the right places.
Sandy
------------------------
Sandy,
Thanks as always for your bulletins. I am usually on the front lines
with working in the strike office, picketing etc. and can keep up on info,
but it's great to have your daily bulletins for additional goings on. ... You
are doing a great service for the MNA, and the SVH nurses, and we really
appreciate it. The other SandyE ( ELLIS) is such a champion. It's hard to
believe that 2 such people can exist with the same names... can we clone
you???
Good luck, and continued writing.
In solidarity, MaryEllenDeCaro, RN
------------------------
The Massachusetts Nurses Association is receiving global messages of support
for striking Worcester nurses from nurses, organizations, other unionized
workers, family of strikers, patients, nursing students, and legislators from
the US, Canada, Australia, the UK, Japan, Abu Dhabi, Trinidad, and so on.
If you would like to send a message of support or other comments, address an
email to massnurses@mnarn.org and to sandyern@aol.com (MNA nurse Sandy Eaton
is maintaining a daily strike bulletin of messages, news articles, and press
releases.).
(Ed.'s Note: For the past several weeks, these daily strike bulletins have
been archived by Labor Party activist Bill Bumpus on the labor-oriented web
page he administers, which can be accessed at
<http://users.rcn.com/wbumpus/worcester.html>. All web and email addresses
mentioned in this archive are written in HTML, for easy linking. -- SE)
------------------------------------------------
Food for thought:
How Gandhi Defined the Seven Deadly Sins
· Wealth without work
· Pleasure without conscience
· Knowledge without character
· Commerce without morality
· Science without humanity
· Worship without sacrifice
· Politics without principle
------------------------------------------------
Teachers rally behind strikers
Saturday, May 6, 2000
By Shaun Sutner, Telegram & Gazette Staff
WORCESTER-- An estimated 1,500 members of the Massachusetts Teachers
Association left their annual convention yesterday afternoon to march in
front of Worcester Medical Center and demonstrate solidarity with striking
nurses.
Strike leaders said the rally was the largest single gathering of
support since the strike started more than five weeks ago.
"This makes me feel appreciated, something the hospital doesn't seem to
do," said Deborah A. Rigiero, co-chairwoman of the nurses union bargaining
unit. "This is great. I've never seen this many people out here to support a
cause."
The MTA members were delegates to the convention at the Worcester
Centrum Centre. The members are from throughout the state and include
teachers, aides, reading specialists, library workers and other support staff
at public schools and state colleges and universities.
The delegates left the convention center about 5:30 p.m., at the end of
the first day of the two-day convention. Virtually every delegate at the
event joined the march, according to MTA leaders.
They paraded in a long line, three and four abreast, down Worcester
Center Boulevard to the main hospital entrance, where about 100 strikers and
supporters were gathered.
Chanting union slogans, ringing bells and exclaiming their support for
the nurses, the throng made a U-turn and walked back toward the convention
center. They made several more loops along the boulevard before ending the
march about 6:15 p.m.
"I totally support the nurses," said Mary T. Doyle, a mathematics
teacher at Burncoat Middle School in Worcester and MTA delegate. "This has
been long ordeal for them. I feel for them."
Some members of the teachers' union said there are similarities between
their work and that of the nurses.
"We're all in this together. We serve the public," said Louis J.
Cornacchioli, executive secretary of the Educational Association of
Worcester. "In order for us to do our jobs, we have to have the right working
conditions."
Police closed the street to traffic for about an hour while the MTA
members marched.
A banjo-playing MTA member from Western Massachusetts was not allowed to
turn on his amplifier and sing to the crowd because of a city noise ordinance
that prohibits loud music within 200 feet of a hospital, police said.
Instead, the banjo player read the lyrics from some union songs and got
some of the marchers and strikers to chant along with him as a few patients
held signs up to their windows in support of the strike.
"The city said no singing here. I wonder what Tenet Corp. had to do with
that," he said. Tenet Healthcare Corp., based in California, owns the medical
center.
The nurses expect another big turnout of supporters tomorrow, when
nurses from around the state arrive in Worcester for a rally that is planned
in conjunction with National Nurses Week.
Up to 1,000 nurses are expected, officials of the Massachusetts Nurses
Association said.
WORCESTER-- Sen. Edward M. Kennedy yesterday chastised Tenet Healthcare Corp.
over its handling of the local nurses strike and called on the California
company to work out an equitable contract with the people who form the
backbone of the nation's health care system.
"They're part of our heart, part of our community, part of our soul, and
we insist that they be treated fairly -- no required, forced overtime," Mr.
Kennedy said during a mid-day rally in front of Tenet's downtown hospital
complex, the Worcester Medical Center.
About 250 people attended the event at the corner of Worcester Center
Boulevard and Foster Street, including delegates from the Massachusetts
Teachers Association, who were meeting inside the Worcester Centrum Centre.
Late yesterday afternoon, hundreds of teachers left the Centrum to join
nurses on the picket line outside the medical center.
Mr. Kennedy, a longtime advocate of health care legislation, criticized
Tenet's stance at a time of national economic prosperity.
"What's intolerable, what's unacceptable, what's unworthy of any
American company is not to treat those nurses with the dignity and respect
that they deserve," Mr. Kennedy said.
The nurses have been loyal to their patients, the hospital and the
community, Mr. Kennedy said. Tenet should bear in mind that when it sits down
to negotiate, it deals with people the community admires and respects, he
said.
"I believe in your cause," Mr. Kennedy told the nurses. "Your cause is
right. I will stand with you every step of the way."
The nurses' rally came one day after talks between Tenet and the nurses,
who are represented by the Massachusetts Nurses Association, broke down again
over the issue of mandatory overtime. The hospital wants the right to require
nurses to work up to eight hours of overtime per shift. Nurses say that
endangers patient care.
On Thursday, both sides met for nine hours but reached no agreement. No
further talks are scheduled.
Sandy A. Ellis, a nurse and member of the negotiating team, said the
striking nurses remain committed to the strike, which is ending its fifth
week.
"Our nursing body has never been so solid. We have not wavered," she
said.
Other nurses said Mr. Kennedy's support was welcome validation of their
position.
"It's always nice to know you made the right choice and you have people
out here supporting you," said Patricia A. Gentile, a post-anesthesia nurse.
The strike began March 31 when most of the 535 full-time and 80 per diem
registered nurses employed at St. Vincent Hospital on Vernon Hill walked off
their jobs. The hospital later relocated downtown to the Worcester Medical
Center.
About 125 hospital nurses have crossed the picket line since the strike
began. Another 125 nurses supplied by U.S. Nursing Corp. of Denver are
helping care for patients.
Yesterday, patients and nurses in the new medical center looked out of
windows at the rally.
Robert E. Maher Jr., chief executive of the medical center, said that
Tenet would have sent someone from the West Coast to negotiate with nurses if
company officials had believed it would change the outcome of the talks.
But the nurses have balked at an overtime demand that other
Massachusetts nurses have accepted and they refuse to submit the stalemate to
binding arbitration, a process often used in settling fire and police
contracts, Mr. Maher said.
"It seems the real reason they don't want to go to binding arbitration
is because they know, as we know, that the standard for hospital care in the
commonwealth is the hospital has the right to
require overtime," Mr. Maher said. "We believe that they're afraid that if
they submit it to binding arbitration, they would lose. So our position
hasn't really changed."
The nurses say they declined arbitration because they were unwilling to
place the matter of mandatory overtime in a third party's hands.
Mayor Raymond V. Mariano, who spoke before Mr. Kennedy, also urged
Tenet, particularly Chief Executive Jeffrey C. Barbakow, to get involved in
negotiations with the striking nurses.
"I've got a message for Jeffrey Barbakow and the folks at Tenet," Mr.
Mariano said. "You're not just fighting our nurses, you're fighting our whole
community, and we're not going to lose."