The Rise of the Corporate-Catholic “Zombie Hospital”
A labor fight at Saint Vincent Hospital in Massachusetts reveals how massive health systems use weak religious affiliations as cover for toxic practices, from unions to reproductive health.
Courtesy of Amy Littlefield
Rain dots the sidewalk outside Saint Vincent Hospital in Worcester, Massachusetts, as Pastor Moses Makor of Christ Vision Ministries ascends a plywood podium. Makor, dressed to preach, in black with a mustard-yellow collar, works at the hospital as a nurse. He and hundreds of co-workers have been out on strike since March 8 over nurse-to-patient ratios they say have led to unsafe conditions and an increase in patient bedsores and falls. It’s a Wednesday in late April, and the nurses surround the podium at the interfaith vigil, cupping battery-powered candles in the gray evening light as Makor quotes from the Epistle of James.
WORCESTER Striking nurses and leaders at St. Vincent Hospital are scheduled to return to the bargaining table Wednesday morning, after the hospital presented a new proposal for staffing Saturday.
“The hospital’s offer was very complex, and the nurses have been meeting and will be meeting all day today to craft a comprehensive proposal to present on Wednesday that will provide what we need to end the strike,” David Schildmeier, the spokesman for the Massachusetts Nurses Association nurses union said in an email Monday.
“We look forward to negotiating as long as it takes to reach a settlement.”
St. Vincent Hospital CEO Carolyn Jackson also welcomed the negotiating session.
Saint Vincent Hospital in Worcester and the union Massachusetts Nurses Association appear to be closer to ending the nurses strike ongoing since March 8, after the hospital agreed to modify contract language around staffing levels.
The two sides met on Saturday, where Saint Vincent made a proposal for staffing levels that mirrors that of UMass Memorial Medical Center, which is the other major hospital in Worcester. The union said it will respond to the proposal when the sides resume negotiations at 10 a.m. Wednesday.
The strike has now lasted 57 days, the longest Massachusetts nurses strike in two decades. At the heart of the disagreement are the nurse-to-patient staffing ratios at the hospital, which the MNA tried to get all hospitals to adopt as part of a failed ballot initiative in 2018.
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WORCESTER, Mass., May 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ The nurses of St. Vincent Hospital and Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare held the second round of negotiations since the nurses launched their strike on March 8 today, where Tenet for the first time made a long-awaited proposal that opens the door to a substantive discussion on the nurses main issue, which is the need for safer staffing levels to ensure safer patient care.
The nurses negotiating committee will take the next few days to meet and carefully evaluate the hospital s proposal and will be back to the table for negotiations on Wednesday at 10 a.m. to present a comprehensive response on what nurses need to settle the contract and end the strike. At this time, the nurses will not be discussing the specifics of, or the value of, what the hospital has proposed, but see it as a positive step in the process.