MEDIA ALERT
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 11, 2000
Contact:
David Schildmeier (781) 821-4625 x717 or (508) 426-1655 (Pager) or
781-249-0430
St. Vincent Hospital Nurses Negotiating Team To Fly To Washington, D.C.
Today For Talks With Tenet Health Care Being Hosted by U.S. Senator Kennedy an
d Congressman McGovern in an Attempt to Reach a settlement to End the Strike
WORCESTER, Mass. - This morning, the negotiating team for the St. Vincent
Hospital/Worcester Medical Center nurses are flying to Washington, D.C. to
meet with Tenet Health Care Corp. for contract talks being hosted by U.S.
Senator Edward M. Kennedy and U.S. Congressman James McGovern in an attempt
to reach a settlement to end the 42 day-old strike. The talks, which will be
held in Sen. Kennedy's offices beginning at 12:30 p.m., were called after
preliminary discussions were held by Sen. Kennedy and Congressman McGovern
with the two parties late into evening on Wednesday. The 20-member nurses'
negotiating team will fly out of the Delta Airlines terminal at 10:30 a.m.
The issue of mandatory overtime is the single most important issue of concern
to the nurses. Currently, the hospital does not use mandatory overtime. The
hospital has been demanding the right to mandate double shifts for nurses,
forcing nurses against their will to work up to 16 hours straight, something
nurses believe is dangerous to patient care.
The parties last met on May 4, but the talks broke down after nine hours when
Tenet once again refused to budge from its demand to have the right to
mandate up to eight hours of overtime.
For their part, the nurses worked hard to reach an agreement, making a major
concession in this round of talks. Initially, the nurses were opposing any
language in their contract allowing mandatory overtime. On April 7, they
modified their position, allowing up to two hours of overtime each shift, and
an additional two hours of overtime per shift in emergencies. At the May 4th
session, the nurses compromised further with a proposal that would give the
hospital the right to require each nurse to work up to four hours overtime at
the hospital's discretion, provided the number of mandatory shifts was held
to eight per year and to no more than two per quarter. A nurse would still
retain the right to refuse mandatory overtime if she felt too fatigued to do
so and provide safe patient care.
The hospital would not relinquish its demand for the right to require eight
hours of overtime per shift, or 16 hour shifts in total, with the last eight
paid at double time. At the end of the negotiations, the hospital made a
final proposal to have the nurses end the strike and come back to work, while
both sides submitted their last best offer on the issues of mandatory
overtime, as well as the issue of flex time to an independent arbitrator. The
nurses refused the offer to go to arbitration.
# # #
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Nurses strike may be near end
Thursday, May 11, 2000
STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
WORCESTER-- The long St. Vincent Hospital nurses strike is likely to end
today, according to a memo Robert E. Maher Jr., CEO of St. Vincent Hospital
and Worcester Medical Center, distributed to his staff.
"We are pleased to announce that we believe we have resolved the key
remaining issues between the striking nurses and hospital management," Mr.
Maher said in the memo.
Terms of the agreement aren't known. The nurses have been striking since
March 31 over the issue of mandatory overtime. Any tentative agreement would
need to be ratified by the members of the nurses union.
Announcement of a settlement could come from Washington where
representatives of both sides are meeting.
The talks between the representatives of the nurses and Tenet Health
Care Corp. are being hosted by U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy and U.S. Rep.
James McGovern. They are attempting to agree to end the 42-day-old strike.
The talks were to be held in Kennedy's office beginning at 12:30 p.m.,
but are likely to be pushed back because of flight delays. They were called
after preliminary discussions were held by Kennedy and McGovern with the two
groups late into last night.
Most nurses at St. Vincent went on strike March 31. Several previous
negotiating sessions failed to break the impasse.
The hospital moved into its new main location at Worcester Medical
Center three days after the strike began.
©2000 Worcester Telegram & Gazette
--------------------------------------------
Bill would require checks on temporary nurses
By Diane E. Lewis, Globe Staff, 5/11/2000
Spurred by the recent firings of three replacement nurses at Worcester's St.
Vincent Hospital, a group of state representatives filed legislation
yesterday requiring criminal and background checks of temporary nursing staff.
The measure, drafted by Representative Vincent A. Pedone, a Worcester
Democrat, was introduced 41 days after more than 500 nurses walked off their
jobs to protest a hospital plan requiring mandatory overtime. The strike
began after talks with Tenet Health Care, the hospital's
for-profit parent, broke down. Tenet seeks a policy requiring 30 minutes to
eight hours overtime during peak emergency periods. Currently, overtime is
voluntary.
Pedone's bill, one of two filed yesterday, came on the heels of the firings
last week of three replacement nurses from U.S. Nursing Corp., a Denver
temporary agency that specializes in replacing striking nurses.
A second bill, introduced by Representative Harriette L. Chandler, a
Worcester Democrat who serves as House chairwoman of the Legislature's Health
Care Committee, would give patients the right to switch to another medical
facility and maintain health care coverage in the event of a strike.
Pedone said he grew concerned after two nurses were fired for leaving a
surgical patient unattended in a recovery room. A third nurse was fired after
she gave a newborn baby to the wrong mother for nursing. The three were among
more than 100 hired through U.S. Nursing.
''We want to make sure the Board of Registration in Nursing is licensing
qualified individuals to care for people in our community,'' said Pedone.
''Right now, the temping agency sends a copy of the replacements' licenses to
the board, which reviews them to make sure they are valid and then issues a
Massachusetts license. We don't feel that is enough.''
''We have been looking at the situation at St. Vincent for weeks,'' added
Chandler. ''We are concerned that these are temporary nurses who are not
normally part of the hospital and do not live in the community.''
Paula L. Green, a spokeswoman for St. Vincent, said the board already uses a
stringent review process before licensing temporary and full-time nursing
staff.
''As for the bill for patients to go elsewhere rather than cross the picket
line,'' Green said, ''that is an issue for insurers. We are a provider and we
are doing all we can to end the strike.''
She acknowledged that the number of patients admitted to the hospital is
slightly down, but said the hospital continues to serve 190 to 220 patients a
day.
''There have been a few people who have chosen not to come to St. Vincent,
but we have not had people come here and leave,'' Green said.
This story ran on page C02 of the Boston Globe on 5/11/2000.
© Copyright 2000 Globe Newspaper Company.
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Tenet criticized at Boston confab
Thursday, May 11, 2000
By Timothy J. Connolly, Telegram & Gazette Staff
BOSTON-- Doctors and nurses, while marking the 180th anniversary of Florence
Nightingale's birth, bemoaned the condition of nursing yesterday during a
Statehouse news conference.
While the 11 speakers made general references to understaffed hospitals
and overworked nurses, most were specific in criticizing Tenet Healthcare
Corp. and in praising the nurses striking at Worcester Medical Center, which
is owned by Tenet.
"There is an ever-increasing workload divided among fewer nurses," said
Dr. Matthew Russell, the son of a nurse, who did his residency at the old St.
Vincent Hospital. "A nurse looks like a duck in a shooting gallery, getting
pinged."
Sandy A. Ellis, a spokeswoman for the striking nurses, told the group in
the Great Hall at the Statehouse that it is deplorable that patient care is
compromised because the hospital administration will not hire enough nurses.
But Paula L. Green, a spokeswoman for the medical center, said in a
telephone interview from Worcester that the federal Balanced Budget Act has
had a negative effect on hospitals across the country. The problem has hit
Massachusetts especially hard, she said.
"We all are concerned about changes in the health industry, and we have
been talking with legislators and congressmen about payments from insurance
companies, HMOs and Medicare," Ms. Green said. "We agree with the nurses that
the health care industry needs to be looked at. New resources are needed to
fuel the system."
The sticking point in the strike is mandatory overtime. Tenet wants it,
while the nurses do not.
"Mandatory overtime is simply a result of an institution choosing not to
hire enough staff," Ms. Ellis said. "This corporation has such little regard
for safe patient care and their employees' rights that they intend to use
mandatory overtime as a means of staffing the hospital."
Ms. Green said the medical center is in the same situation as other
hospitals in the state. "We have to provide quality care while keeping costs
low and being efficient," she said.
Several speakers at the Statehouse questioned the idea of profit-making
companies owning hospitals.
"All the for-profits want their hospitals to be lean, mean fighting
machines," said Suzanne Gordon, author of "Life Support: Three Nurses on the
Frontline."
"It's like Midas Muffler shops: You go in, they do the work, and send
you home to take care of yourself," she said.
Dr. Timothy Guiney said health care executives repeat the word
"marketplace" like a mantra. "Health care is the one place where the market
economic model doesn't work," he said. "Insurance companies provide health
care not because it's good for people, but because it makes money."
Dr. Leo Stollbach, former director of hematology-oncology at St.
Vincent, said he has been walking the picket line with the striking nurses.
He said he sent an e-mail to Tenet executives urging them to settle the
strike.
The doctors and nurses held the gathering to mark Nurses Week, which
falls each year around the anniversary of the birth of Florence Nightingale,
a philanthropist and nurse who is regarded as the mother of modern nursing.
Her birthday is tomorrow.
© 2000 Worcester Telegram & Gazette
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Lukes says legislation on issues required
New strike negotiators are urged
Thursday, May 11, 2000
By Lisa Eckelbecker, Telegram & Gazette Staff
WORCESTER-- City Councilor-at-Large Konstantina B. Lukes yesterday called for
Tenet Healthcare Corp. and striking nurses at the Worcester Medical Center to
make a fresh attempt at contract negotiations by designating new bargaining
teams.
Both sides appear exhausted and immovable as a result of the protracted
labor standoff, and their efforts to rally public and political pressure have
not solved the outstanding issues, Mrs. Lukes said.
"You eyeball people across the table and you become emotional, and in
this kind of situation you develop positions that are just as much
personality-based as they are contractual issues," Mrs. Lukes said. "To
remove some of the emotion out of it, and some of the concerns that may not
have anything to do with anything on the table, you need a fresh start."
A longtime critic of the Worcester Medical Center, a $215 million
project that was built on land that the city and state spent about $57
million to prepare, Mrs. Lukes said she is not taking sides in the strike.
In fact, she is one of the few political officials to resist getting
involved. Since the nurses went on strike at St. Vincent Hospital on March
31, a number of city councilors and state legislators have endorsed the
nurses. The hospital moved to the Worcester Medical Center in early April,
and U.S. Rep. James P. McGovern and U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy have appeared
there at rallies or picket lines.
Mrs. Lukes said she was sending letters to both sides suggesting the
change in negotiating parties. Paula L. Green, a spokeswoman for Tenet and
the Worcester Medical Center, said hospital officials would consider it.
"We share her concerns very, very much," said Ms. Green. "We thank her
for her suggestion, and obviously we're looking at all the different
opportunities and options going forward."
But a representative for the nurses rejected the suggestion, saying that
the nurses have not become entrenched and have offered concessions to Tenet.
"We have been elected into positions. The bargaining unit has been
behind us 100 percent of the way," said Debra A. Rigiero, co-chairman of the
nurses' bargaining unit. "They're telling us we're doing a good job and we're
representing them."
The nurses and Tenet, owner of the medical center, have been at odds
over mandatory overtime. Tenet wants the right to require nurses to work up
to eight hours of overtime per shift as needed. The nurses, who are
represented by the Massachusetts Nurses Association, say that is unfair to
nurses and jeopardizes patient care. They have proposed limited overtime.
No new negotiations are scheduled.
Mrs. Lukes said she decided to call for new negotiators after city
councilors received a letter from Worcester Medical Center Chief Executive
Robert E. Maher Jr. asking for the public to support the medical center's
call for binding arbitration in the labor dispute.
In addition, she said, debate over the nurses and Tenet has escalated to
encompass larger issues that ought to be handled by legislators as health
care reform.
"This has become more than a labor dispute," Mrs. Lukes said. "What we
are doing is legislating health care reform on the streets and on the picket
line. It's the worst place to do it."
Under less heated circumstances, the nurses and Tenet might be able to
reach agreement just as Tenet negotiated a contract recently with nurses at
MetroWest Medical Center, Mrs. Lukes said.
But David J. Schildmeier, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Nurses
Association, said that situation was different because the talks were over
salary.
"The issue of mandatory overtime does not appear in that contract and
was not included in that negotiation," Mr. Schildmeier said.
© 2000 Worcester Telegram & Gazette