Help Wanted: Picketers & Contributors:

Round-the-clock picketing continues at Worcester Medical Center. Call strike
headquarters with your schedule and pick a shift. Many groups, as well as
individuals, have adopted regular shifts each week to stand shoulder to
shoulder with the striking St. Vincent nurses. Contributions to the strike
fund should be made out to 'MNA/St. Vincent Nurses Strike Fund' and forwarded
to the strike office:

MNA/St. Vincent Strike Office
29 Endicott Street . Worcester, MA 01610 . 508-792-2181

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Message from Canadian Nurse Leader:

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

I know our provincial president has already sent you support from SUN, but on
behalf of the nurses I represent I too send you their support.

I know it's difficult to remain strong when the Bosses are always using their
tactics, but believe me, that the public understands the tough times in
nursing and the workloads, 16 hour shifts, and trying to maintain our
professional standards. But you know the old quip, it's always darkest
before the dawn.

I send to you our members strength and perseverance, because you are right in
your cause.

Also, remember that United You Stand and Divided you may fall!

God Bless you in your struggle and may your rights prevail!!

Yours in Solidarity,

Suzanne Stewart
Representative on the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses Board of Director's.

Yorkton, Saskatchewan

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Message from MASS-CARE Vice-Chair John Healey:

Barbakov's number is still wide open ...

Tenet CEO, Jeffrey Barbakow

Phone: 805-563-6800
Fax: 805-563-6808
Email: jeffrey.barbakow@tenethealth.com


I just left another message with his secretary, asking her to remind him
that: at $4,000 to $5,000 per week, that translates to over $200,000 to a
quarter-million dollar per year salary for one nurse.

(This is what the nurses themselves get: correct? plus room, board,
transportation. How much more is U.S. Nursing getting on top of that?)

Using the more conservative $200,000 per year X 125 scabs = $25,000,000 per
year for their strikebusters. Probably negligible compared to the hundreds of
millions in penalties they've had to pay for defrauding the Federal
government, let alone their profits, but still a lot of money.

How do we let Tenet's shareholders and the investment community in general
know that they're spending $25 Million/year to do something that is opposed
by:

* their nurses,
* the Worcester City Council,
* the mayor of Worcester,
* it's United States Congressman,
* Senator Kennedy,
* most (if not all) other unions in the region and
* the community.


John
W: 508- 467-7656
H: 508-987-1805

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More than 500 nurses and health-care workers rally at the (Rhode Island)
State House yesterday to call attention to chronic staffing shortages that
lead to additional shifts.

5.10.2000

By LINDA BORG, Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE -- Imagine starting your shift at 11 p.m., working all night and
then being told that you had to stay until 3 p.m. That's what happened to
Mary Porrazzo at Rhode Island Hospital on Saturday. Porrazzo, a registered
nurse with 20 years of experience, was ordered to work another eight-hour
shift when a colleague called in sick.

"I was exhausted," she said. "You end up too tired to focus."

More than 500 nurses and other health-care workers, some from as far away as
Vermont, gathered on the State House lawn yesterday to call attention to what
union leaders say are chronic staffing shortages that lead to mandatory
overtime.

The State House steps were awash with purple T-shirts, white balloons and
homemade placards saying, "We care" and "Safe staffing: just for the health
of it," as vendors did a brisk business selling popcorn and Del's lemonade.

The rally was sponsored by the United Nurses & Allied Professionals, which
represents 4,000 nurses and other health-care employees in Rhode Island. It
was timed to coincide with National Nurses Week.

Union leaders say that hospitals are using mandatory overtime as a way to
solve staffing shortages instead of hiring more staff.

They blame the shortage of nurses, both locally and nationwide, on what they
see as the hospital industry's increasing obsession with the bottom line
instead of patient care.

"We have been giving until it hurts," said Linda McDonald, president of the
UNAP at Rhode Island Hospital. "It hurts us to see patients waiting for
hours. It hurts us when we are faced with a choice of abandoning our patients
or abandoning our kids. It hurts us to see our colleagues becoming burned
out."

Susan St. Martin, a nurse at Rhode Island Hospital, said management thinks
that nurses are interchangeable: "They think they can plug us in anywhere,"
she said.

She also said that co-workers facing a mandatory double shift call her in
tears and say, "Can you come in and work for me? I can't find anyone to
baby-sit my kids."

The Hospital Association of Rhode Island has disputed the union's assertions
that patient care may be compromised by staffing shortages. However, Edward
J. Quinlan, president of the hospital group, recently acknowledged that there
is a nursing shortage, with perhaps as many as several hundred vacancies
statewide.

Rhode Island Hospital has 72 openings for registered nurses, but 45 nurses
will begin their orientation this summer.

Linda Shelton, a spokeswoman for Rhode Island Hospital, said yesterday that
mandatory overtime shifts are declining now that the flu and cold season are
over.

She also said that Rhode Island Hospital has introduced a bonus system to
encourage nurses to stay on the job.

"No one likes mandatory overtime," Shelton said. "Our goal is to reduce it.
We are aggressively recruiting new nurses."

Shelton also disagreed with nurses who claim that mandatory overtime is
motivated by financial considerations.

"It is less expensive to hire a nurse than it is to pay double-time," she said
. "But we need to have mandatory overtime when we have no other options."

At yesterday's rally, Linda McDonald also called on the crowd to support
several bills before the General Assembly. One bill would prohibit hospitals
from ordering licensed staff to work more than four hours of overtime per
shift.

Another would set up an advisory panel of nurses and management that would
develop staffing standards in conjunction with the state Department of Health.

Senate leaders yesterday announced their support for a third initiative that
would create a hospital inspection team within the Health Department.

Another speaker, Jill Furillo, director of government relations for the
California Nurses' Association, described how her 32,000-member union mounted
a grassroots campaign to pass the first safe staffing law in the country. The
law mandates nurse-patient staffing ratios.

The California nurses took their campaign for safe staffing to the public.
After losing their first ballot initiative by a narrow margin, they fought
back. The second time they brought this issue before the voters, they won.

Several elected officials spoke at the rally, including Lt. Gov. Charles
Fogarty; state Sen. Donna Walsh, D-Charlestown; and Senate Majority Leader
Paul Kelly, D-North Smithfield.

Copyright © 2000 The Providence Journal Company

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Hospital denies raking in big profits

Hospital profits become a factor in nurses strike

Wednesday, May 10, 2000

By Lisa Eckelbecker, Telegram & Gazette Staff

WORCESTER-- The nurses strike at Worcester Medical Center turned into a
disagreement over accounting yesterday.
City Councilor Timothy P. Murray, citing income statements filed with
the state, said that Tenet Healthcare Corp. apparently reaped $78 million in
hospital profits in Worcester over the last two years and should meet its
obligation to the community by settling its disagreement with striking nurses.
But hospital officials said the statements Mr. Murray cited do not
completely reflect the hospital's financial status, including millions of
dollars in state and federal taxes it owed and the debt expenses Tenet
assumed from the hospital.
"For the year 2000, the profit that we are showing is not sufficient
enough to cover the debt service of the Worcester Medical Center, so we're
not making tons of money," said William W. George, chief financial officer
for the Worcester Medical Center.
Mr. Murray said he would like Tenet to verify 1998 and 1999 financial
statements for St. Vincent Hospital that were filed with the Massachusetts
Division of Health Care Finance and Policy. Tenet bought St. Vincent Hospital
in 1997, built the new Worcester Medical Center downtown and relocated the
hospital in early April.
The statements show that St. Vincent Hospital reported net income of
$37.7 million in 1998 and $40.7 million in 1999. Tenet has an obligation to
its shareholders, but also to Worcester, Mr. Murray said.
"I think it's important for this hospital and this community in general
that we try to settle this strike as soon as possible," Mr. Murray said.
But those financial statements do not include state and federal taxes
the hospital owed in 1998 and 1999, which would have reduced net income by
more than 40 percent, Mr. George said. Tenet pays the taxes for all its
hospitals and does not require individual hospitals to account for those
taxes, he said.
In addition, Tenet took over millions of dollars in hospital debt,
reducing the hospital's interest expenses, Mr. George said. It also assumed
about $11 million of annual depreciation and amortization expenses, he said.
One-time accounting transactions related to Tenet's acquisition of St.
Vincent Hospital changed the picture further so that when all factors are
considered, the hospital's income in 1998 and 1999 was about the same as the
$3.7 million in income it reported in 1996, Mr. George said. Nor is the
hospital reaping large profits this year, he said.
"Through the month of March, year to date, we are showing a pretax
income of slightly more than $3 million," he said. "We're showing a corporate
tax liability of about 40 percent. So our after-tax profit is about $1.8
million, which is a profit of about 1.25 percent of our net revenues."
Mr. Murray said he would be asking the city's legislative delegation to
ask the state to compile a ranking of all Massachusetts hospitals by profit.
That kind of information, he said, would enhance discussions about health
care in the state.
Worcester Medical Center nurses went on strike March 31 after contract
talks with Tenet broke down over the issue of mandatory overtime. Tenet wants
the right to require nurses to work up to eight additional hours of overtime
per shift when needed. The nurses have rejected that, saying it endangers
patient care.

© 2000 Worcester Telegram & Gazette

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A nurse's view from the picket line

Wednesday, May 10, 2000

By Patricia E. Stanton, Special to the Telegram & Gazette

I have been a nurse at St. Vincent Hospital for the last 11 years. I love
being a nurse and caring for my patients. I cannot, however, in good
conscience work in an environment that endangers my patients' well-being.
Mandatory overtime as a replacement for staffing is a dangerous proposition
for which I am not willing to risk my license. This is why I am out on the
picket line.
The Telegram & Gazette ran a news story recently, indicating an
impoverished state of our profession. The headline was "Nursing Schools See
Enrollment Steadily Shrinking." Is this what we want to see?
I know what it is like to have a 12-patient assignment, in which one
patient is crashing and the other 11 are put on hold. How is it possible to
give each of those patients enough time to address their physical as well as
emotional needs?
I was a floor nurse on the step-down cardio thoracic unit at St.
Vincent's for six years and have experienced this type of assignment. I was
working in the surgical intensive care unit prior to the strike. Not being
able to care for my non-critical patients as completely as the at-risk
patients can at times be oppressive.
Worcester Medical Center is not St. Vincent. The majority of the nurses
who made St. Vincent what is was are out picketing for a safer environment
for all of our nurses and our patients.
Regarding the picketing violations, unless you witnessed them
personally, it is just hearsay. Claims without substance are insulting to
everyone and serve no positive purpose.
The Worcester police have acted with respect and restraint in what for
them must be a very difficult assignment. They are, after all, our neighbors
and will be long after all this is settled. Any insinuation that they have
ignored or endangered any patients' or staff's well-being is just plain
wrong.
We want to go back to our jobs with a fair and equitable contract. I
want to maintain my license safely. This is how I support my family.
Maybe each nurse, inside and out, should take a look at himself or
herself closely and ask, "Do I stand by my convictions?" If so, there will be
harmony when all is settled. People who believe in their choices don't feel
guilty about them.
I don't hide my face and rush past anyone without acknowledging them.
Why are people doing that now?
Let us stick together and make our profession more desirable and
attractive to others. Only then will we have professional prosperity.

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Patricia E. Stanton R.N. of Leicester is a critical care nurse.

©2000 Worcester Telegram & Gazette

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