Striking St. Vincent Nurses Counter Hospital's 'Worst' Offer

WORCESTER, MA — Striking St. Vincent nurses have responded to the latest offer from hospital executives to end the 114-day strike.

The third offer so far during the strike by executives at the hospital, owned by the Dallas-based for-profit company Tenet Healthcare, was delivered Sunday by a federal mediator. The nurses called that offer the "worst proposal made by the hospital since the strike began."

According to a St. Vincent spokesman, the hospital's latest offer boosts resource nurse positions. Overall, the striking nurses want the St. Vincent to increase nursing staff hospital-wide.

"This third proposal provides enhanced resource nurse staffing by offering one resource nurse, 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," a St. Vincent news release said. "It also includes limits on how many patients these resource nurses can take, so they will be available to help other nurses or to assist with unique circumstances that arise."

But the latest offer does not eliminate "flex" nurses, who can be sent home based on patient counts in the hospital, according to the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA). The MNA also said the Sunday proposal had lower wage and health benefits than a previous offer made in May.

"[T]he nurses’ proposal includes a mix of four and five patient assignments on the medical-surgical and telemetry floors, prudent increases in emergency department staffing, with the addition of resource nurses and other staff to ensure nurses can promptly respond to changing patient needs, and those patients requiring more intensive care," an MNA news release on the counter-offer said.

The nurses' counter-offer was delivered late Tuesday, so the MNA does not expect a response from St. Vincent executives until Wednesday or later.