New Offer On Table For Striking Worcester Nurses

WORCESTER, MA — St. Vincent Hospital nurses will consider a new proposal from the hospital's owners made over the weekend, the first offer Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare has made since early May.

The new proposal, however, does not meet the nurses' demands for increased staffing levels inside the hospital, Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA) leaders said. MNA officials said the offer was aimed at grabbing publicity following a Saturday rally outside the hospital featuring Worcester Mayor Joe Petty, U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern and U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

"It is not a serious proposal that will allow nurses to provide patients with the care and dignity they deserve from our community hospital," St. Vincent nurse and MNA bargaining unit co-chair Marlena Pellegrino said in a news release Sunday. "We are hopeful that Tenet will take this opportunity to sit down with the nurses and bargain in good faith — something they have refused to do."

A St. Vincent spokesperson on Sunday said the new proposal includes increases in pay and benefits, and an increase in resource nurse staff.

"The different aspect of this option is enhanced resource nurse staffing. It provides for resource nurses, regardless of patient census, on day and evening shift for all med/surg units, as well as incremental resource nurses in other areas of the hospital. It also includes limits on how many patients these resource nurses can take," a St. Vincent news release said.

The nurses are planning to review the new offer today, but will likely present a counter-offer on Tuesday.

The strike began on March 8 and reached its 112th day on Monday. It's the longest labor strike in state history after a six-month strike at Burbank Hospital in Fitchburg in the early 1980s.