Registered nurses represented by the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA) at Brockton Hospital go back to the negotiating table with management on Friday, May 4, 2001. The negotiating session, to be held at the Holiday Inn in Brockton, will be the first round of talks since the nurses cast an overwhelming vote to authorize a strike over their concerns about mandatory overtime, staffing conditions and the hospital's salary proposal. The session, which will be held with a federal mediator, will begin at 10 a.m. The MNA will contact the media when the talks are completed, and nurses will be available for comment. For information, call the MNA Communications Department at 781.426.1655 or 781.249.0430.

The two sides last negotiated on April 10, 2001, which ended with no significant movement, causing the nurses to take a strike authorization vote. On April 23, the nurses voted 330 - 68 to authorize the union's negotiating committee to call a strike if the hospital continues to refuse to address the nurses' key concerns. The nurses are committed to negotiating to avoid a strike so long as the hospital engages in a good faith efforts to reach a settlement.

In the last three years, inadequate staffing and mandatory overtime have been a regular occurrence at the facility. Since January, more than 79 nurses have been forced to work extra hours or entire shifts to compensate for a lack of appropriate staff.

The nurses are seeking strict limits on mandatory overtime, similar to provisions negotiated by the Massachusetts Nurses Association-represented nurses at St. Vincent Hospital/Worcester Medical Center last year. The St. Vincent nurses conducted a highly publicized 49-day strike over the issue in 2000, and have won national recognition for their stand over this public health issue. Since that time, other MNA-represented hospitals have negotiated similar provisions.

The nurses are also outraged by the hospital's stance on the salary in the negotiations. While the hospital CEO Norman Goodman has repeatedly boasted of the hospital's ability to make a profit for the last six consecutive years, as it has dramatically increased its patient volume, Brockton Management is offering the nurses a 2% raise each year for a three-year contract. They are offering this while paying Goodman $500,000 per year, and an additional $20,000 in benefits.

The nurses, whose contract expired on Oct. 19, 2000, have been negotiating their new contract since September 2000. A total of 15 negotiating sessions have been held with the last five before a Federal Mediator.

Mandatory Overtime/Staffing is Top Priority

Nurses at Brockton Hospital have a long history of problems with management over the issue of mandatory overtime, i.e. forcing a nurse against her/his will to work extra hours or shifts to compensate for a lack of appropriate staffing. It was the principle issue of concern in their last contract negotiation of 1998. While the hospital had promised to eliminate the problem, the practice continued at an even higher rate.

The nurses are not alone in their concerns about poor staffing/mandatory overtime and the impact on the safety of patients. The Department of Health and Human Services has issued a study showing a direct link between low nurse staffing levels and poor patient outcomes. The study's authors contend that thousands of patients die every year because of poor staffing conditions. The Chicago Tribune reported in a three-day series last September that a majority of hospitals nationally have significantly reduced registered nurse staffs. Since 1995, at least 1,720 patients have died and 9,584 others were injured in cases linked to overwhelmed nurses, poor staffing, excessive overtime and inadequate training.

The nurses are seeking contract language that grants every nurse the right to refuse a mandatory overtime assignment if he or she feels too fatigued or ill to work safely. They also want limits on the amount of mandatory overtime assigned to a nurse to no more than 4 hours for an 8-hour nurse and no more than 2 hours for a nurse scheduled to work a 10-hour shift. Nurses who work 12-hour shifts can never be mandated to work overtime. The contract also limits the amount of times a nurse can be assigned overtime to 8 times per year.

The language calls upon the hospital to exercise its best effort to maintain full staffing in order to prevent the need for mandatory overtime, and it requires the hospital to carefully document each and every instance of mandatory overtime, and to review those occurrences with a staffing committee made up of unionized nurses and management. The goal of this process is to limit the use of mandatory overtime and develop solutions to correct conditions, such as inadequate staffing, that contribute to it. If the two sides cannot agree on problems that arise, the language calls for the issues to be presented for expedited arbitration.

Salary Is Key To Recruiting Nurses To Ensure Safe Care

The issue of salary is directly linked to the staffing and mandatory overtime issue, because the state, as well as the nation, is in the midst of a major nursing shortage, where the competition for nurses, especially experienced nurses, is tremendous.

A number of hospitals in the Bay State are offering significant salary increases, bonuses and other incentives to recruit staff, while at the same time negotiating limits on Mandatory Overtime. Last month nurses at UMass Medical Center ratified a two-year contract granting their nurses a raise of between 12 and 25% based on nurses' experience. The UMass nurses also negotiated the St. Vincent Hospital mandatory overtime provisions into their pact.

The Brockton Hospital Nurses are asking for a three-year contract with a 6.5% pay hike in the first year, and 7% in the last two years. The nurses have not had an increase since October 1999, and they claim the hospital can well afford to meet their demands given its recent financial performance.

In fact, the hospital's web site recently featured a story celebrating the hospital's unprecedented growth and financial stability, as announced at its recent annual meeting. Goodman pointed to the hospital's continued investment in growth and development in services, including a $5 million expansion of its radiology department, a $6 million expansion of the emergency department and a $1 million investment in a physician practice facility.