Union asks nurses at UMass to OK strike
The union representing about 850 registered nurses at UMass Memorial Medical Center's University Campus in Worcester has asked its members to authorize a strike, a sign that a nine -month contract dispute is worsening.
The union said its members are angry over the hospital's demands for concessions on pensions, health benefits, wages, paid days off, and layoff language. Negotiations began in January and little progress has been made, though the contract expired in April.
``Right now the nurses at UMass Medical Center are completely fed up with the way they are being treated by management," said Kathy Logan , a nurse and chairman of the Massachusetts Nurses Association bargaining unit at the hospital.
UMass Memorial nurses were state employees when it was run by the University of Massachusetts. That changed in 1998, when the hospital merged with Memorial Health Care, but the nonprofit institution remains the teaching hospital for the UMass Medical School. It is by far the largest healthcare provider in central Massachusetts.
The hospital says concessions, including freezing pensions for current nurses and eliminating them for future hires, will make it more competitive .
It says it wants to bring the nurses at the University Campus more in line with other employees in the UMass Memorial system, which has 12,000 employees at hospitals throughout the region.
The union hopes the threat of a strike will give it more leverage at the bargaining table. The authorization ballots will be counted Wednesday, before a Thursday bargaining session. It said preliminary polling indicated 87 percent of its members support a strike.
``I'm totally optimistic that [managers] will come to their senses and negotiate with us in good faith," Logan said. ``No one wants to see devastation to healthcare in Worcester."
The union said the hospital is financially sound, pointing to a 38 percent raise chief executive John O'Brien received last year, bringing his total 2005 compensation to $1.27 million.
Hospital officials said union negotiators have been unwilling to bend . They said profit margins are slim, and more money is needed for construction and equipment.
``What's been missing here, quite frankly, has been a willingness by the MNA to engage us in a dialogue on the substantive issues, said John McMahon, senior vice president and chief human resources officer. ``Their stance has been, `If it's a concession, we're not going to talk about it.' But the financial realities of the market have changed, and there are things we have to talk about."
The hospital said that it has arranged to bring in replacements should nurses strike, but that it would prefer to negotiate a settlement. There has not been a nurses' strike at a Massachusetts hospital since a six-week walk-out at St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester in 2000.
In addition to the pension change, the hospital wants to increase full-time nurses' share of healthcare insurance premiums from 15 percent to 30 percent.
It also wants to reduce sick days from 15 to 8, and cut annual step-wage increases from 6.8 percent to 4 percent. The hospital is proposing a 1 percent overall raise, which means most nurses would receive 5 percent annual raises for the life of the contract.
Logan said the union will consider whether to start counting down a 10-day waiting period before a strike after the negotiation session with hospital officials scheduled for Thursday.
Christopher Rowland can be reached at crowland@globe.com. 