Thursday, 4:30 PM
Nurses strike at UMass Memorial in Worcester
By Andrew Ryan, Globe Correspondent
The 830 union nurses at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester went on strike this morning a 6 a.m. when all night contract negotiations broke down.
Several hundred union members walked with picket signs early this morning while the administration staffed the hospital with temporary nurses.
"Right now we are still here talking with the hospital trying to resolve this thing," said David Schildmeier, a spokesperson, Massachusetts Nurses Association. "Hopefully things can be worked out today."
Both sides said they had reached a verbal agreement at about 3 a.m. However, when the agreement was put into writing, differences resurfaced.
"It appears what happened was when the agreement was written up there were different interpretations of what was said," said Dr. Walter Ettinger, the hospital president.
Neither side would describe the specific sticking points between the written text and the verbal agreement. Supervised by a federal mediator, the negotiations had been stalled on the issues of wages, health insurance and, particularly, pensions. UMass executives had called for concessions in the three issues.
The hospital hired some 350 temporary nurses to care for the roughly 300 patients while the nurses remained on strike. The temporary nurses took over the day shift at 6 a.m. this morning and made a smooth transition, Ettinger said.
"They'll be working here as long as our nurses are out on strike," said Ettinger. "We have patients to take care of."
Hospital spokeswoman Alison Duffy added: "The hope is that it will be resolved rather quickly."
Since April, the 830 union nurses have been working without a contact. Negotiations began in December, and the union voted to authorize the strike at the end of September.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
