New Moakley Building To Be Part of MNA Bargaining Unit
BOSTON, Mass.—The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has ruled that all the registered nurses positions to be established at Boston Medical Center’s new Moakley building will be part of the Massachusetts Nurses Association bargaining unit. The $96 million Moakley building will provide a centralized location for same day cancer treatment in addition to other types of same day surgeries.
In 1996 Boston City Hospital and Boston University Medical Center merged into the Boston Medical Center. The nurses at the BU Medical Center were represented by the Massachusetts Nurses Association. The nurses at Boston City Hospital were represented by the Service Employee International Union. As part of the merger the two separate nursing bargaining units were left intact. When the new Moakley building was nearing completion, the question arose as to which nurses’ union would have jurisdiction over the nurses working in the new building. Hospital management filed a petition with the NLRB requesting the NLRB make the decision to clarify which union would represent the RNs working at the Moakley.
“The vast majority of these nursing position are now held by nurses in our bargaining unit,” said Ann Driscoll RN and chairperson of the MNA’s Bargaining Unit at the BMC. “We look forward to seeing our unit stay whole and are thankful that the NLRB recognized the validity of our claims.”
The NLRB decision which was issued last week stated, “The Moakley building RNs, a vast majority of whom will be transferees from the MNA bargaining unit, constitute a proper accretion to the MNA unit. Any RN assigned to work in the Moakley building on a permanent, regular basis will be a MNA bargaining unit member.”
According to Roland Goff, Director of Labor Action for the MNA, this ruling had been expected. “When the NLRB found that 41 of the 44 RNs transferred to the Moakley building were from our bargaining unit there was really no other conclusion they could reach. The board was clear that the RNs in the Moakley building shared a community of interest with those nurses in the MNA University campus unit.”
“We have always viewed ourselves as a family as much as a bargaining unit. The decision was correct because these are our jobs and our family will stay together,” said Ann Driscoll.
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