Saint Vincent Hospital nurses, Tenet Healthcare to resume negotiations Saturday nearly two months into strike
Updated 1:15 PM;
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Negotiations are set to resume Saturday between Tenet Healthcare and nurses from Worcester’s Saint Vincent Hospital, who have been on strike for nearly two months.
A federal mediator scheduled a round of talks for 2:30 p.m. Saturday, which is the second round of negotiations since nurses began striking on March 8, according to a statement from the Massachusetts Nurses Association.
Nurses from the Tenet-owned Saint Vincent Hospital are seeking staffing improvements they say are needed to ensure safer care for patients.
WORCESTER After another round of negotiations ended without resolution Monday, striking St. Vincent Hospital nurses and hospital management have not set a date for another meeting.
Monday s negotiation ended after the nurses bargaining committee denied a new proposal from hospital management calling for the creation of a committee to review the hospital s staffing levels every quarter and ensure staffing guidelines in the nurses current contract are being met.
Marlena Pellegrino, chair of the bargaining committee for St. Vincent nurses, said the nurses committee has been meeting regularly to look over their own proposal to the hospital and will reach out to the mediator to set up another negotiation session when they feel ready.
Dive Brief:
More than 700 nurses at Tenet s St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester, Massachusetts, remain on strike after the two sides sat down to their first bargaining session since the work stoppage began March 8. The Monday meeting was futile, and another session has not yet been scheduled.
The Massachusetts Nurses Association, which represents the nurses, said Tenet came to the table with a proposal that did not address the safer staffing standards nurses raised before going on strike, and ignored guidance given through a federal mediator on what was needed to reach a settlement.
St. Vincent CEO Carolyn Jackson said she expects the union to bring a counterproposal to the mediator and request another meeting. We are waiting for them to come back to continue discussions, and we will go from there, she said.
WORCESTER Members of the Massachusetts Building Trades Council marched in support of striking St. Vincent Hospital nurses Wednesday afternoon, with union leadership encouraging members to boycott the hospital until the strike is resolved.
“Due to St. Vincent and (hospital owner) Tenet Health’s uncompromising stance against their nurses arguing for patient safety we cannot in good conscience send our members and their families there for medical care,” MBTC President Francis X. Callahan wrote in a letter to St. Vincent CEO Carolyn Jackson. “Until you resolve your contract negotiations with the Massachusetts Nurses Association (nurses’ union) in a manner that addresses the issue of patient safety to the nurses’ satisfaction, we will encourage our members to seek their healthcare needs elsewhere.”