Boston-based Tufts Medical Center is responding to claims made by the Massachusetts Nurses Association, which represents roughly 1,200 hospital nurses.
The union, which rejected the hospital's "last, best and final" offer earlier this month, is ramping up for a possible one-day strike after more than one year of unsuccessful contract negotiations with Tufts. Meanwhile, Tufts, which budgeted $30 million for a new four-year labor deal with nurses, issued a news release Monday, responding to claims made by the MNA.
Tufts specifically addressed an MNA claim that the medical center has difficulty recruiting and retaining nurses. The medical center said that is not the case, as Tufts has a 4.6 percent turnover rate, among the nation's lowest. The medical center also noted Tufts hired 160 additional nurses in the past 18 months.
Tufts also addressed the union's claim wages are not competitive with other area hospitals.
The medical center "has fewer resources than other hospitals in Boston, yet its full-time senior nurses at the top of the scale (comprising 60 percent of the medical center's nurses) earned an average of $152,000 in 2016," Tufts said. "Nurses with 10 years' experience earned an average of $100,000 in 2016. The final contract proposal from the hospital increases the wages of the most experienced nurses by 10.5 percent over the 39 months following ratification, with greater than half of that increase to be awarded over the first 12 months of the contract."
Additionally, Tufts addressed the MNA's claim that the medical center's plan to move 341 nurses from a defined benefit pension plan to a contribution retirement plan "would result in significant losses in retirement funding for most nurses," arguing instead this move would help Tufts cut millions in administrative costs, which would be reinvested in nurses.
No strike date has been set. Both sides have indicated they are willing to return to the bargaining table.
Read the full Tufts release here.
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