After a nine-month strike, dozens of negotiating sessions and a day-long deliberation, nurses at Worcester’s St. Vincent Hospital and the hospital's parent company, Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare, reached a tentative agreement on Friday — a peace treaty that nurses hope will set a higher bar for the treatment of essential workers across the country.
“The nursing field has been through so much in the last couple of years,” nurse Dominique Muldoon told GBH News. “We went from being healthcare heroes, and then we struggled and started getting sick ourselves, and some of us even died during the pandemic. I would hope that some things, some attitudes change because of this strike.”
Some 700 nurses participated in the strike as they negotiated for a new contract to address staffing concerns, including lowering the number of patients assigned to nurses. One key aspect of the agreement will increase the number of nurses at the hospital. Though the contract has not yet been ratified, both parties are touting it as a win for staff and patients as COVID-19 rates once again rise in the region.
Union leadership with the Massachusetts Nurses Association said the two parties were prepared to settle in August, until Tenet Healthcare refused to allow a proposal that would let striking nurses return to their previous jobs. The most recent agreement concedes that sticking point. As part of the deal, all nurses who went out on strike are guaranteed the right to return to work in the same position, hours and shifts that they worked prior to the strike.
“We got the core issue, and we're very happy about it,” Muldoon said. “We’re looking forward to getting back to work and having some normalcy in our lives, getting back to nursing and taking care of our patients again.”
In addition, all permanent replacement nurses will be retained in their current positions, according to a hospital spokesperson.
“The decision to allow striking nurses to return to their original positions followed careful consideration of the clinical challenges expected this winter throughout Massachusetts, and the resultant need for as many nurses as possible to provide quality care for our community,” hospital spokesperson Matthew Clyburn said in a statement.
“The new contract will provide enhancements for patients and our team, and we are glad to finally end the strike and put our sole focus back on patient care,” Saint Vincent Chief Executive Officer Carolyn Jackson said in a statement. “We will be setting a new tone at Saint Vincent Hospital: We are one team with a common purpose. Not striking nurses versus replacement nurses. Not nurses versus management. One team united behind the principles of professionalism, excellence, accountability, and compassion.
The St. Vincent nurses walked off the job on March 8, making this the longest nurses strike in state history and the longest in the country in 15 years, according to the Massachusetts Nurses Association. The previous longest strike in the state, at Burbank Hospital in Fitchburg, lasted about six months in 1982.
Marlena Pellegrino, a nurse at St. Vincent Hospital and co-chair of the St. Vincent Hospital nurses’ local bargaining unit, said striking was their last resort. Prior to this action, the nurses had held presentations, sent emails to management, and participated in negotiation meetings.
“This agreement, and the improvements it includes was hard fought, and represents a true victory, not only for the nurses, but more importantly, for our patients and our community, who will have access to better nursing care, which was why our members walked that strike line for the last nine months through four seasons," Pellegrino said in a statement.
Specific details of the agreement are being withheld until a ratification vote is conducted. Union organizers said nurses are eager to complete that step as soon as possible, though a specific timeline has not been provided.
“I have nothing but pride and appreciation for all 700 nurses [who] literally put everything on the line for their patients and this community,” Marie Ritacco, St. Vincent nurse and MNA vice president told GBH News in a statement Sunday. “Our strike struck a chord, and for that and because of that we will walk into that building with our heads held high.”
Muldoon says meetings to share contract information continue, including one this Wednesday — though she anticipates the ratification process may take longer than a few days. Sessions have been going well, Muldoon says, and represent a standard for essential workers that she hopes extends to other groups of people working during the pandemic.
“There's a lot of essential workers out there, I'm not saying that nurses are the only ones, but we happened to stand up and I think we shined a light on it,” Muldoon told GBH in an interview Sunday. “I would hope other professions would feel the same way.”
The St. Vincent nurses walked off the job on March 8, making this the longest nurses strike in state history and the longest in the country in 15 years, according to the Massachusetts Nurses Association. The previous longest strike in the state, at Burbank Hospital in Fitchburg, lasted about six months in 1982.
