On December 8, the ongoing nurses strike at Saint Vincent Hospital hit the nine month mark. Beginning in March, this nurses strike has become the longest in Massachusetts history, and the longest nationally in 15 years as healthcare providers continue to fight for the quality of patient care. After two years of fruitless negotiations between the nurses at Saint Vincent Hospital, and their parent company, Tenet Healthcare, on their new contract, workers took the struggle further.
“No one is out here because it’s fun. We’re out here for the patients,” said Cathy Duszak, a nurse of 24 years, on the 100th day of the strike. The reason for the strike, as told by the nurses, is a lack of proper staffing, leading to a dip in the quality of patient care. With over 500 “unsafe staffing” reports being filed in the last year alone, the absence of healthcare workers has had a domino effect. Nurses have cited extended wait times, medications being administered slower than usual, and bed-bound patients developing sores from not being moved often enough.
“We had been trying to work without administration in the hospital for close to two years,” said Marlena Pellegrino, co-chair of the MNA bargaining unit and nurse of 35 years. “At a certain point, working in that kind of environment, you become complicit in that behavior.”
In August, the nurses, represented by the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA) were served a last, best and final offer by Tenet Healthcare, on which all points were agreed upon but one. The disagreement came from the point which stated that, while all striking nurses would be guaranteed jobs at the hospital once again, they could not guarantee that they would all return to the same positions as permanent replacements are hired. “We thought ‘this would be enough’,” said Pellegrino, “and then they slid across the table their return to work agreement…That was a big sign that they were not interested in settling the strike.” The plan to hire replacements was finally implemented on October 17, and drew national attention to the struggle.
Senators Elizabeth Warren and Edward J. Markey, with the help of chairman James P. McGovern and congresswoman Lori Trahan, brought the Massachusetts congressional delegation together to address Tenet Healthcare regarding the nurses’ return to work. “We are alarmed and dismayed by Tenet’s efforts to prolong this crisis with their demand that nurses be denied a return to the positions they held, many of them for decades, prior to the strike,” their letter stated, “Tenet’s approach violates long accepted standards for the conclusion of a work stoppage and jeopardizes the safety of the patients who will be subject to care from more inexperienced replacement staff.”
Tenet’s CEO, Saumya Sutaria, M.D, released an official response to the lawmakers’ letter, defending the legitimacy of their actions. “Bringing in permanent replacement nurses, while certainly not our first choice, was a necessary step to ensure continuity of care and to preserve access to the most critical services for our community,” wrote Sutaria. In August, Tenet said that around 85% of nurses would be granted their exact positions after returning to the hospital. Sutaria also noted in his statement that many of the newly hired replacement nurses were MNA members who chose to cross the picket line.
Tenet Healthcare is no stranger to union negotiations with its employees. The for-profit company based out of Dallas, TX recently reached an agreement with another group of healthcare workers on strike at MetroWest Medical Center’s Leonard Morse Hospital. The workers at Leonard Morse are represented by the Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA). Tenet Healthcare pointed toward their cooperation with LIUNA to illustrate their willingness to negotiate and agree upon terms, with MetroWest Medical Center writing that they are “consistently good partners in negotiating with the labor unions”.
“It is time for the MNA to show its willingness to collaborate,” they went on to say in their statement.
However, as the nurses from Saint Vincent and the MNA continue to feel that their needs, as well as patients’ needs, are not met, the strike goes on. “This is something that we needed to do to advocate for our patients in our community…at a certain point nurses had to take a stand,” Pellegrino said in an interview with Greater Boston WGBH. She said that, as they continue without their jobs at Saint Vincent, the striking nurses have been finding alternative ways to put their skills to use.
“We are working, we’re taking temporary positions everywhere. We’re doing vaccine clinics, hospitals, rehab centers,” she told WGBH, “we are taking care of patients in the community.”
