We Will NOT Celebrate Management’s Daily Disrespect for Nursing Practice
We Will NOT Celebrate When Vital Services are Cut at the Cost of Patient Safety
The MNA negotiating committees of both the UMass Memorial, Hahnemann Home Health and Hospice and UMass University campuses are calling upon all MNA RNs to boycott the 2010 Nursing Appreciation Gala and instead, to join us in a demonstration outside the DCU Center on September 21, beginning at 5 p.m.
The nurses of UMass Memorial Health Care are outraged that this hospital will tout its appreciation for nurses, when they have repeatedly shown they have no respect for our professional practice or for our patients. For example:
- Management wants to throw nurses a party just days after announcing the closing of a medical surgical floor on the Memorial Campus, resulting in the loss of more than twenty-seven nursing positions.
- Management wants to throw us a party just two months after declaring a system-wide internal disaster, precisely because there was not enough staff or beds in the system to safely care for our patients. What happens when the flu season hits?
- Management wants to throw a party for nurses after spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a consultant to help them implement “lean” production methods that our CEO says will result in significant restructuring throughout the entire system, which could mean even more staffing cuts on all campuses.
- Management wants to throw a party for nurses after announcing significant cuts to our support staff, which will further compromise our practice and the quality of our care.
- Management wants to throw a party for nurses, while refusing to agree to UMass Memorial nurses’ call for safe staffing levels in their contract, and while demanding a 10% wage cut for home care nurses.
- Management is doing all of this while posting profits last year of more than $80 million.
The time has come to let management know:
Nursing at UMass is no day at the beach; in fact patient care & respect for nurses is sinking under Nancy Kruger’s leadership.
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