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星期三, 7月 12, 2017

塔芙茨醫療中心護士今(12)日將罷工一天

華人前進會就塔芙茨醫院護士預定7月12日早上7點起罷工一天,發表如下中英文說明。麻州護士協會也發表新聞稿。

塔夫醫院護士在711日星期二返回談判,試圖避免患者一天的安全受影響
注冊護士正計劃在712日發動24小時的罷工,護士們憂慮醫院病人安全,資源短缺,和減掉退休計劃的問題仍未得到解決;塔夫醫院威脅4天把護士關在外面

波士頓 – 1,200名塔夫醫院注冊護士選出的護士代表在712日星期二在波士頓聯邦調解員辦公室返回談判,希望與塔夫醫院達成共識,設法在預定計劃進行歷史性的24小時罷工前,解決有關病人護理安全,退休保障和其它的問題。

除非塔夫茨醫院同意一個公平的合同,並真正重視護士和保障病人能得到最優秀的護理,塔夫茨的護士們,由麻州護士協會作代表,已準備好一天的罷工由712日星期三的上午7時開始,直至713日星期四的上午659分。

“塔夫茨的護士們已經提出解決醫院人手和病人護理問題的方案,並已找出如何支付解決方案”手術室護士兼談判小組共同主席 Mary Havlicek Cornacchia提出,“我們希望塔夫茨的管理層會在星期二能坐下來,聆聽護士的聲音和決定會真正的談判。”

“醫院想減掉過百位塔夫茨護士的長期賺得的退休福利,”Havlicek Cornacchia 說。“取而代之,我們已經提出改用另一個退休計劃,會立即為醫院節省11百萬美元的費用,并能減少醫院85百萬的保險支出。我們已經準備好星期二談判,能找到合適我們的病人和護士的解決方法,但是如果塔夫茨不願意談判,我們也準備好24小時的罷工。

注冊護士星期二至星期四的公共時間表

711日星期二早上10時:塔夫茨護士會回到波士頓99Summer街的聯邦調解員辦公室進行談判。

712日星期三早上7時:如果塔夫茨管理層拒絕接受一個公平的合約去保護病人和尊重護士,一天的罷工正式展開。護士和支持者會在醫院800號華盛頓街的正門外集會。抗議將會展開,並在24小時的罷工和醫院有可能會閉關的期間持續進行。

712日星期三中午12時和下午5時:在醫院800號華盛頓街的正門外,與護士,職員,社區支持者和地方領袖一起集會示威。

713日星期四上午659分:注冊護士一天的罷工終結。護士會在800號華盛頓節門外集會,當日值班的護士計劃返回塔夫茨醫院照顧病人。塔夫茨醫院已威脅會4天把護士關在外面。

塔夫茨醫院罷工替工護士的真相
在塔夫茨的護士24小時罷工的期間,管理層打算帶入全國國地的臨時替工護士,他們對醫院毫不認識,跟塔夫茨的護士不一樣因爲不是專科,麻州護士協會認爲這個做法會危害病人護理。
歷史,學術性研究,和有工會的注冊護士全都能作證,臨時的替工護士是不能取代暫時失去一班有專業領域的護士,他們並非常熟悉自己的病人和醫院的運作。在2010年,國家經濟研究局的一項調查總括,“招聘替工明顯不會有幫助:在罷工的情況下,有聘請替工的醫院不會比沒有請替工的醫院有更好的服務。在各種情況下,需要深切護理的病人在護士罷工的時候惡化的機會會變得更高。”http://www.nber.org/digest/jul10/w15855.htm

2000年期間,在Worcester St. Vincent醫院一班麻州護士協會的護士曾經罷工,當時醫院行聘用了替工護士,來自同一間塔夫茨醫院正打算會聘用的罷工補替護士公司,有三名護士被解雇,分別因爲替工護士在病人手術后丟下了病人,還有帶錯了嬰兒給一個母親,這些全部都有在Worcester Telegram & Gazette WCVB視頻有新聞報道記錄的。根據Channel 5 的報道,有另一名病人被輸入了幾乎致命過量的嗎啡,正因爲一名替工護士誤會了醫生的指示。https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1LfVT2Ot3I


“即使在正常的情況下,也需要幾個星期才能訓練一個有經驗的護士去提供良好的護理”工會共同主席兼一名輸液/導管/認證放射有經驗的護士提出。“他們怎可以有期望一班來自全國不同地方,在這間醫院又毫無經驗的護士,能讓醫院安全地運作?這是不負責任的想法。與其發出最後聲言和花費數百萬美元去忽視我們,不如聽取我們的意見,提供一個公平,和能真正重視病人護理安全,而不是為了企業利潤的協議。”



PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release                                              Contact: David Schildmeier, 781-249-0430
Date:  July 10, 2017
Tufts Medical Center Nurses to Return to Negotiations Tuesday, July 11 in Attempt to Avert One-Day Patient Safety Strike
RNs plan 24-hour strike on July 12 as nurses’ concerns over patient safety, lack of resources, 
retirement takeaway remains unresolved; Tufts threatens 4-day lockout

BOSTON – The registered nurses elected to represent their 1,200 colleagues at Tufts Medical Center will return to negotiations at the federal mediator’s office in Boston on Tuesday, July 11 in an attempt to reach an agreement with Tufts on safe patient care, retirement and other outstanding issues ahead of a historic 24-hour strike planned for July 12.

Tufts nurses, represented by the Massachusetts Nurses Association, are prepared to hold a one-day strike beginning at 7 a.m. on Wednesday, July 12 and running until 6:59 a.m. on Thursday, July 13 unless Tufts agrees to a fair contract that properly values nurses and ensures patients have the highly skilled Tufts nursing care they need.

 “Tufts nurses have proposed solutions for our hospital’s staffing and patient care problems and a way to fund those solutions,” said Mary Havlicek Cornacchia, an OR nurse and bargaining unit co-chair. “We hope that Tufts management will sit down on Tuesday, listen to its nurses and decide to actually negotiate.

 “The hospital wants to take away long-earned retirement benefits of hundreds of Tufts nurses,” Havlicek Cornacchia said. “Instead, we have proposed a different pension plan that would mean $11 million in immediate savings for the hospital and an $85 million reduction in liabilities. We are ready to negotiate for real solutions for our patients and our nurses on Tuesday, but we are also prepared to strike for 24 hours if Tufts is not willing to negotiate.”

RN Public Schedule for Tuesday-Thursday

10 a.m. Tuesday, July 11: Tufts nurses will return to the bargaining table at the federal mediator’s office at 99 Summer St. in Boston.

7 a.m. Wednesday, July 12: One-day strike begins if Tufts management refuses to agree to a fair contract that protects patients and values nurses. Nurses and supporters will gather outside the main entrance of the hospital at 800 Washington St. in Boston. Picketing will begin and continue through the duration of the 24-hour strike and potential hospital lock out.

12 p.m. and 5 p.m. Wednesday, July 12: Rallies outside the hospital at 800 Washington St. in Boston with nurses, staff, community supporters and local leaders.

6:59 a.m. Thursday, July 13: One-day RN strike ends. Nurses will gather outside the hospital at 800 Washington St. in Boston and those scheduled to work plan to enter Tufts to care for their patients. The hospital has threatened to lock out nurses for four days.

The Truth about Tufts Strike Replacement Nurses

During the planned 24-hour strike by Tufts nurses, TMC management plans to bring in mercenary replacement nurses from all over the country who do not know the hospital, are not highly specialized like the Tufts nurses, and who the Massachusetts Nurses Association believes will endanger patient care.

History, academic studies and unionized registered nurses can all testify to the fact that mercenary replacement nurses cannot make up for the temporary loss of nurses who are specialized in their fields and knowledgeable of their patients and the hospital systems. A 2010 study by the National Bureau of Economic 

Research<http://www.nber.org/digest/jul10/w15855.html> concluded, “Hiring replacement workers apparently does not help: hospitals that hired replacement workers performed no better during strikes than those that did not hire substitute employees. In each case, patients with conditions that required intensive nursing were more likely to fare worse in the presence of nurses' strikes.”

During the 2000 strike by MNA nurses at St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester, three replacement nurses recruited by the same strike replacement nurse agency Tufts plans to use, were fired after separate incidents in which they left a patient alone after surgery and also gave the wrong baby to a nursing mother, according to news reports by the Worcester Telegram & Gazette and WCVB Channel 5<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1LfVT2Ot3I>. Another patient was given a nearly fatal overdose of morphine because a replacement nurse misunderstood a doctor’s order, according to Channel 5.

See more about these patient safety problems in a video here<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1LfVT2Ot3I> and read more about this issue here<http://massnurses.org/news-and-events/p/openItem/10550>.
“It can take several weeks to orientate even an experienced nurse to provide quality care under normal conditions," said Barbara Tiller, union co-chair and an IV/PICC/CRN nurse. “How can they possibly expect to safely operate this hospital with nurses drawn from all parts of the country who have no experience with our facility? It is irresponsible. Instead of issuing ultimatums and spending millions of dollars to ignore us, it's time they listened to us and offered a fair settlement that values safe patient care over corporate profits.”


Karen Y. Chen, Executive Director
Chinese Progressive Association 華人前進會
28 Ash Street, Boston, MA 02111
p:617-357-4499 f:617-357-9611
www.cpaboston.org

Tufts Medical Center Nurses Will Wage One-Day Strike on July 12 As Last-Ditch Talks Fail to Reach Agreement

RNs plan 24-hour strike as nurses’ concerns over patient safety, lack of resources, retirement takeaway remain unresolved; Tufts threatens four-day lock out

BOSTON – The 1,200 registered nurses at Tufts Medical Center, who are represented by the Massachusetts Nurses Association, will conduct an historic one-day strike tomorrow as the latest round of negotiations held today at the federal mediator’s office failed to achieve a settlement that ensures patients have the highly skilled nursing care they deserve. The strike will begin at 7 a.m. on Wednesday and run until 6:59 a.m. on Thursday, July 13. It will be the first strike by nurses in Boston in over 30 years, and the largest nurses’ strike in Massachusetts history.

“We came to the table today hoping to reach an agreement, but Tufts management is determined to force a strike and a subsequent lock out of our nurses,” said Mary Havlicek Cornacchia, an OR nurse and bargaining unit co-chair. “This decision really shows administration’s lack of respect for its nurses and for the safety our patients.”
The nurses are seeking much needed improvements in staffing levels to ensure nurses have more time to spend with patients as well as an increase in their salary to keep them competitive with other Boston hospitals (Tufts nurses are the lowest paid nurses in the city) and to preserve and enhance their pension benefit (which is also the worst in the city).   
“Instead of caring for our patients, the nurses of this hospital will be out on the strike line tomorrow to demonstrate our resolve and our commitment to fight for what is best for our patients and our professional practice,” said Barbara Tiller, union co-chair and an IV/PICC/CRN nurse. “We have been trying for months to convince Tufts management that our patients and nurses are suffering because they refuse to provide us with the resources, appropriate patient assignments, and the compensation we need to ensure quality patient care. We will be on the street tomorrow, Tufts nurses will not back down.”
RN Public Schedule for Tuesday-Thursday
7 a.m. Wednesday, July 12: One-day strike begins. Nurses and supporters will gather outside the main entrance of the hospital at 800 Washington St. in Boston. Picketing will begin and continue through the duration of the 24-hour strike.
12 p.m. and 5 p.m. Wednesday, July 12: Rallies outside the hospital at 800 Washington St. in Boston with nurses, staff, community supporters, and local leaders.
6:59 a.m. Thursday, July 13: One-day RN strike ends. Nurses will gather outside the hospital at 800 Washington St. in Boston and those scheduled to work plan to enter Tufts to care for their patients. The hospital has threatened to lock out nurses for four days.
The Truth about Tufts Strike Replacement Nurses
During the planned 24-hour strike by Tufts nurses, TMC management plans to bring in mercenary replacement nurses from all over the country who do not know the hospital, are not highly specialized like the Tufts nurses, and who the Massachusetts Nurses Association believes will endanger patient care.
History, academic studies and unionized registered nurses can all testify to the fact that mercenary replacement nurses cannot make up for the temporary loss of nurses who are specialized in their fields and knowledgeable of their patients and the hospital systems. A 2010 study by the National Bureau of Economic Research concluded, “Hiring replacement workers apparently does not help: hospitals that hired replacement workers performed no better during strikes than those that did not hire substitute employees.”
During the 2000 strike by the MNA nurses at St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester, three replacement nurses recruited by the same strike replacement nurse agency Tufts plans to use were fired after separate incidents in which they left a patient alone after surgery and also gave the wrong baby to a nursing mother, according to news reports by the Worcester Telegram & Gazette and WCVB Channel 5. Another patient was given a nearly fatal overdose of morphine because a replacement nurse misunderstood a doctor’s order, according to Channel 5.
“It can take several weeks to train even an experienced nurse to provide quality care under normal conditions in a new hospital setting,” said Havlicek Cornacchia. “How can they possibly expect to safely operate this hospital with nurses drawn from all parts of the country who have no experience with our facility? It is irresponsible. Instead of issuing ultimatums and spending millions of dollars to ignore us, they should have listened to us and offered a fair settlement.”
Key Issues in Dispute
The nurses’ key issues in these talks continue to be:

·       The need for improved nurse staffing with safer patient assignments for nurses throughout the hospital
·       The need for more IV nurses and clinical resource nurses
·       The need to have charge nurses who are free of patient assignments at the start of all shifts, in all units. A charge nurse is an RN who is responsible for managing all aspects of nursing responsibilities during each shift, from processing patients in and out to delegating nursing rounds. Being free of an initial patient assignment will allow Tufts’ charge nurses to provide desperately needed support to patients and nurses at the busiest time (i.e., change of shift)
·       The need for wage improvements that will make the hospital market competitive, thereby improving nurse recruitment and retention
·       The need for pension protections/improvements that will make the hospital market competitive

 Concerns over Safe Staffing and Safe Patient Care

In the current environment at Tufts, nurses across all units and floors are contending with unsafe staffing situations on a daily basis, with many units reporting constant unsafe staffing levels. The result is too many RNs are regularly carrying patient assignments that are too large and unsafe. Every day, the hospital sends RNs blast-text messages asking them to pick up shifts that are open due to the bare-bones approach management uses to staff the hospital.

Simultaneously, hospital management insists on using a fragmented and broken system of temporary reassignment as a way of trying to deal with its chronic staffing challenges. This results in RNs being directed to work on units and floors where they are unfamiliar and/or untrained to safely care for patients. In addition, there are not enough specialty nurses to help with patients’ IV needs or in an emergency.

“We have offered a variety of proposals — and amended proposals, and doubly amended proposals — that would address staffing,” said Tiller. “But management’s responses have been so inadequate that they don’t get to the heart of the problem. They insist on offering us staffing proposals that are disjointed and superficial. What we need from them is simple: more full-time RNs and specialty nurses, and charge nurses without an initial patient assignment. That’s what will keep our patients safe.”

Market Competitive Compensation

In addition to having some of the worst staffing conditions in Boston, Tufts Medical Center has also become the hospital that offers its nurses the lowest wages and retirement benefits in the city. “The hospital’s proposals have not adequately addressed these issues,” said Havlicek Cornacchia. “Without market competitive wages and benefits, Tufts cannot recruit and retain the nurses it needs, and the staffing problem spirals downward.”

Management has also proposed freezing the defined benefit pension plan for approximately 350 RNs and instituting a divisive, inequitable, and complex catchup mechanism as part of a proposed higher-risk 403(b) matching program. That change would result in significant losses in retirement funding for most nurses. Meanwhile, RNs already in the defined contribution plan would continue to receive the lowest employer contribution of all nurses in the city.

The nurses have countered with an innovative proposal that would benefit all RNs while still saving the hospital millions of dollars annually. This proposed plan, which is a multi-employer defined benefit pension plan, would add as much as $11 million to Tufts’ bottom line, would eliminate more than $85 million in pension liability. Management has refused to engage in any real talks on this issue.

“The pay and retirement benefits at Tufts just aren’t competitive,” said Tiller. “We know it, Tufts knows it, and the other hospitals in the city know it. As a result, we’ve become the nurse training ground for all the other facilities. New graduates come here, they get their experience, and they move on. This cycle won’t stop until the hospital makes us competitive. And in the meantime, our patients suffer.”

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