Tufts Medical Center nurses vote to strike over safety
Union officials say more than 70 percent of the registered nurses of Boston's Tufts Medical Center voted Thursday night to authorize a 24-hour strike over patient care conditions.
"With this vote, Tufts nurses are sending a strong message that they are ready and willing to take a stand for their patients and their profession," said Barbara Tiller, RN, chairperson of the Massachusetts Nursing Association's local bargaining unit at Tufts, which represents more than 1,100 nurses at the hospital.
"Nurses are united in their belief that the current staffing plan at the hospital is unsafe for patients and it needs to change," she said. "We can only hope that the hospital is listening and will finally work with us to address this patient safety crisis."
Hospital officials disputed the results of the confidential vote.
Julie Jette, a spokesperson for Tufts Medical Center, said the center condemns the strike authorized by MNA and its parent union National Nurses United.
"The union is claiming 'an overwhelming majority' of Tufts Medical Center nurses approved the authorization; however, the union’s assertion is highly suspect given that they will not share the vote count and Tufts Medical Center nurses reported significant intimidation and irregular voting practices," according to a Tufts statement.
The vote comes as the parties prepared to meet Friday with a federal mediator, the next to last scheduled session before the expiration of the nurses' union contract, according to the MNA.
The vote does not mean the nurses will strike immediately, Tiller said. It gives the negotiating committee the authorization to call a one-day strike if they feel it is necessary. Once the committee issues its official notice to strike, the hospital will then have 10 days before the nurses strike.
According to the MNA, the nurses have "serious concerns" about recent changes in RN staffing levels and in how they deliver care that has resulted in nurses being forced to care for more patients at one time on nearly every unit. To compensate for chronic understaffing, the union said, Tufts is using mandatory overtime and is forcing nurses to "float" from one area of the hospital to another where they might not be competent to provide appropriate care.
"Those changes transformed this hospital from being one of the best staffed hospitals in Boston to the worst staffed hospital in the city," Tiller said. "As a result, our nurses spend less time with patients than nurses at other hospitals in the city."
Tiller said that staffing changes have caused a dramatic deterioration in both the quality of care that nurses are delivering, and in some cases has resulted in serious lapses in care. In the past 15 months, nurses have filed more than 600 reports of incidents that jeopardized patient care. In addition, more than 80 percent of the nurses have signed petitions calling for safe staffing levels.
Hospital officials say the strike vote is part of a national campaign by the union to establish mandatory staffing ratios.
According to Tufts, NNU has threatened and led strikes at several hospitals in the past year, including 14 hospitals in Minnesota, Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, Me., Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center, Wilkes-Barre General Hospital in Pennsylvania and Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C. The union also held a strike authorization vote at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Worcester, Mass., last week.
"It’s hypocritical for the MNA/NNU to claim it cares about patient safety while it authorizes a potential walkout that would cause undue stress on patients and their families," said Ellen Zane, president and CEO of Tufts Medical Center. "Let me be clear – a strike will never change our position on rigid mandatory staffing ratios, and we continue to ask that the MNA/NNU move toward common ground at the bargaining table so that we can move forward with an agreement that truly puts patients and the community first."
[Read about other nursing strikes over staffing levels: Nurses strike at Kaiser's Sunset Boulevard medical center; Minnesota nurses ready for strike vote.]
