Nurses filed for an election with the National Labor Relations Board to join the Massachusetts Nurses Association to improve patient safety and secure professional respect
FRAMINGHAM, Mass. – The registered nurses of Framingham Union Hospital will participate in an election overseen by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on Wednesday, January 10 to join the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA) and form a union that will empower them to advocate together for patient safety and professional improvements.
Framingham Union nurses filed a petition with the NLRB in September 2023 for a union election. They have been seeking to exercise their strong, united voice to improve conditions for patients, nurses, and their colleagues. The election will take place at the hospital at different periods throughout the day on Wednesday, ending at 9 p.m. Tenet Healthcare, the Texas-based for-profit that owns the hospital, has been attempting to strip nurses of their right to vote and filed an appeal that contributed to a months-long delay.
Nurses stood up against Tenet’s union-busting by organizing inside the hospital and joining with elected officials and community supporters for public actions. There are approximately 280 registered nurses at FUH who would be represented by the MNA following a successful election. The main themes nurses have identified for why they are joining the MNA include:
- To improve nurses’ ability to provide quality safe patient care.
- To promote a safe and healthy working environment.
- To revive and preserve a sense of pride, morale, and respect in their community hospital.
- To feel valued, treated with respect as a profession and satisfaction in their work.
“An overwhelming majority of Registered Nurses at Framingham Union Hospital have decided that we would like to have a real and independent voice on all decisions that affect us, the work we do and the patients we take care of,” the nurses wrote in a letter they delivered to the hospital CEO in September. “We would like to be real partners with you in setting priorities for our workplace and ensuring a healthy future for Framingham.”
The MNA is the largest union and professional organization of nurses and healthcare professionals in Massachusetts. It represents 25,000 members in healthcare facilities across the state, including nurses at more than 70 percent of the Commonwealth’s acute care hospitals. The MNA is led by a board of directors that is directly elected by its membership and consists of front-line nurses and other healthcare professionals.
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Founded in 1903, the Massachusetts Nurses Association is the largest union of registered nurses in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Its 25,000 members advance the nursing profession by fostering high standards of nursing practice, promoting the economic and general welfare of nurses in the workplace, projecting a positive and realistic view of nursing, and by lobbying the Legislature and regulatory agencies on health care issues affecting nurses and the public.
