The Massachusetts Nurses Association filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board against Baystate charging that it has been bargaining in bad faith both at Baystate Franklin and at Baystate Visiting Nurses Association and Hospice in Springfield.
This is an updated version of a story posted at 6:30 this evening.
A union representing 209 nurses at Baystate Franklin Medical Center in Greenfield, shown above, is has scheduled a one day strike for Oct. 5. GREENFIELD – Nurses at Baystate Franklin Medical Center on Thursday set Oct. 5 for a one-day strike after negotiations Wednesday showed little movement toward a resolution of a nearly year-long contract dispute with Baystate Health Systems.
Also Thursday, the Massachusetts Nurses Association filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board against Baystate charging that it has been bargaining in bad faith both at Baystate Franklin and at Baystate Visiting Nurses Association and Hospice in Springfield.
Both units of registered nurses have been attempting to negotiate new contracts.
Massachusetts Nurses Association spokesman Charles Rasmussen said with nurses voting last month to authorize a strike at Baystate Franklin, they knew much depended on what happened at the scheduled negotiations Wednesday.
“What happened was nothing,” he said. “There was a little tinkering on the edges.”
He said nurses felt they had to call for the strike “to really put pressure on Baystate.”
This was the 26th negotiating session.
Deborah Palmeri, chief nursing officer for Baystate Franklin Medical Center, said in an email, “We presented a fair, comprehensive package of wages and benefits, which we had hoped would contribute to significant progress in our negotiations.”
She said that the center “pays wages and benefits that are fair and in line with the market. Our proposals reflect what we are able to provide to the nurses at BFMC within the context of the present market, economic environment and the outstanding unknowns presented by health care reform.
“We are disappointed that the MNA was not more receptive to the proposals we made.”
Thursday’s labor filing was the second set of charges filed by the union. Two months ago Baystate entered into a settlement agreement with the labor board to resolve similar bad faith bargaining charges from last spring.
The nurses’ new charges, according to a union press release, allege “regressive bargaining, failure to meet at agreed upon times and places, and refusal to provide information necessary to conduct negotiations.”
The nurses, many of them part-time, have been without a contract since the spring.
Salaries, health care insurance expenses, overtime and sick-time rules are some of the contract issues.
The strike vote authorized last month requires the union provide the hospital with 10 days notice before actually striking. The action includes the 209 nurses at the medical center in Greenfield only.
The strike is scheduled to begin at 7 a.m. on Oct. 5 and will conclude at 6:59 a.m. on Oct. 6.
Palmeri said, “We are developing a contingency plan with our focus first and foremost on assuring the continued safe care of our patients.”