Staffing, Successor Language and Securing Their Pension are the Issues
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The Registered Nurses at Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton, MA took their contract fight to the streets on August 24 with an informational picket. The yearlong contract negotiations have come down to three very important issues, staffing, successor language, and securing their pension.
In response to an increase in patient assignments, nurses are calling for nurse staffing language to ensure that patients receive the care they need when they need it and to protect their licenses. With active discussions underway with potential buyers for the hospital, the RNs need to have successor language to protect their union rights and contract no matter who takes over. And lastly, the nurses are fighting to secure their pension. Recently the hospital tried to end their defined benefit pension and now they want to stop offering it to new nurses.
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