Why did a Massachusetts Nurses Association official appear at an event sponsored by the Morning Star in Britain?
Nurses at St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester, Massachusetts are in their fifth week of their open-ended strike. The 700 nurses, members of the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA), are fighting for safe staffing ratios at the hospital in the face of vicious attacks on their conditions by the owner of St. Vincent, multibillion-dollar Tenet Healthcare.
The nurses’ strike is one of the largest workers struggles currently taking place in the US, alongside the strike of mine workers at Warrior Met Coal in Alabama and the Columbia University graduate students strike in New York City. However, the unions in these struggles the MNA at St. Vincent, the United Mine Workers at Warrior Met Coal, the United Auto Workers at Columbia have worked to isolate their memberships from workers facing the same fight in defense of jobs and working conditions, and against deplorable working c
U.S. Rep Jim McGovern calls on Tenet Healthcare to resume talks with nurses at Saint Vincent Hospital in Worcester
Updated 4:09 PM;
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One of the first things U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern did Tuesday morning was speak with Tenet Healthcare in an attempt to nudge the Dallas-based parent company of Saint Vincent Hospital to return to the negotiating table with the nurses who are striking in Worcester.
It has been four weeks since the nurses at Saint Vincent Hospital began an open-ended strike calling for increased staffing to provide better patient care.
While McGovern has been seen publicly meeting with nurses on the picket line, he’s also been working behind the scenes to get Tenet to return the negotiating table and get the nurses back to work.
St. Vincent nurses in Massachusetts in fourth week of strike for safe staffing
Nurses at St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester, Massachusetts are entering the fourth week of strike action. St. Vincent is owned by Tenet Healthcare, a Dallas, Texas-based conglomerate that has so far spent at least $22 million to hire strikebreaking replacement nurses. After a series of federally mediated negotiations, the nurses, represented by the Massachusetts Nurses Association, took their demand for safe ratios and patient care to the picket line on March 8 .
Roughly 700 nurses maintain the picket in shifts. Two entrances, one to the parking garage and to the loading docks, have become hotspots. Last week, the hospital installed two surveillance towers to monitor both entrances 24/7, under the pretext of maintaining safety. Worcester police officers, paid for by the hospital to keep the entrances open at a rate of $30,000 a day, installed a surveillance camera of their own.
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WORCESTER Easter Sunday was just another day for St. Vincent nurses picketing outside the hospital, as the union entered the fifth week of its strike.
But the nurses celebrated the holiday with an Easter fun day, giving pickets a chance to at least be with their families as they fulfilled their strike duties, said Sandy Ellis, Central Mass. community organizer for the Massachusetts Nurses Association that is backing the union in its dispute with Tenet Healthcare.
“It’s not lost on us this is the first holiday families are able to get together with their families,” she said, referring to the more widespread vaccinations in Massachusetts since the winter holiday season.