U.S. Rep. James McGovern, D-Mass., is urging Saint Vincent Hospital in Worcester, Mass., and the Massachusetts Nurses Association to resume negotiations in a five-week labor dispute, MassLive reported April 6.
Saint Vincent is owned by Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare.
Mr. McGovern has been meeting with Saint Vincent nurses during the strike, according to the report, and he's asking both sides to come together to end the walkout.
"Tenet needs to get back to the negotiating table and sit with the nurses and try to work something out for however long it takes," he said, according to MassLive. "You can't solve a strike, you can't get moving on this moment, unless you talk."
A key sticking point in negotiations is staffing.
The union has sought a 4-1 patient-to-nurse ratio on medical/surgical floors and telemetry units, in most cases, with a resource nurse to help as needed; more emergency department staffing; and more ancillary support in each unit, according to the Telegram & Gazette . The nurses say staffing is inadequate and that the COVID-19 pandemic made the problem worse.
The hospital says the union's staffing demands are unreasonable. The hospital said it has offered expanding a 4-1 patient-to-nurse ratio to three of eight medical/surgical floors, as well as a generous wage and benefit proposal, adding a critical care float nurse who would always be available, and COVID-19 staffing guidelines that would ensure a nurse on a med-surgical floor does not have more than four COVID-19 patients at a given time, according to the Telegram & Gazette.
The Massachusetts Nurses Association represents 800 nurses at Saint Vincent. The hospital has hired replacement workers to replace striking ones.
As of April 7, the hospital reported that 129 union-represented Saint Vincent nurses had crossed the picket line and returned to work.