UMass Worcester RN's set to strike tomorrow 6am

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Please support your Registered Nurses

OCT 26 STRIKE DEADLINE LOOMS
UMass University Campus RNs and Management to Meet on Oct. 25

Pre-Strike Rally for Nurses to be Held at
Frohsinn Club in Shrewsbury on Oct. 25 at 7 p.m.
Strike Set to Begin at 6 a.m. on Oct. 26

WORCESTER, MA – A federal mediator has scheduled another meeting between registered nurses and the management of UMass Memorial Medical Center (UMMC) for Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2006 in an attempt to avert a strike. The talks will be held at the Morgan Building on Belmont St. in Worcester beginning at 10 a.m. Talks held on Friday ended with no offer made by management to end the current impasse.

Barring a settlement, the nurses are preparing to go out on strike on Oct. 26 at 6 a.m. The hospital continues to demand a number of significant concessions the nurses believe compromise their ability to retain and recruit staff needed to deliver quality patient care at the region's only Level One Trauma Center. Nurses are outraged by the hospital’s insistence on making significant cuts in their pay and benefits after posting record profits in 2005 of $94 million, while projecting to make another $47 million in 2006.

Key issues in dispute include the hospital’s demand for significant increases in health insurance costs, elimination of a defined pension for new nurses, cuts to nurses’ family and medical and leave benefits and a significant cut to the nurses’ salary scale. They are also seeking changes in the Reduction in Force language that would threaten nurses’ job security. The hospital’s current salary offer would result in many nurses losing as much as $8,000 per year, with some nurses losing much more.

In the event a strike becomes necessary, the nurses are moving ahead with preparations. The nurses have opened a strike headquarters located at 365 Shrewsbury St. in Worcester, in walking distance from the hospital. A Pre-Strike Rally has been scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Frohsinn Club, 25 North Quinsigamond Ave. in Shrewsbury where the nurses will gather with local community and labor leaders, as well as nurses from throughout the state for a rally on the eve of the strike.

This would be the first nurses’ strike in Massachusetts in five years. Nurses at Brockton Hospital waged a 103-day strike in 2001. Nurses at St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester waged a 49-day strike in 2000.

The 830 nurses of the UMMC/University Campus, who are represented by the Massachusetts Nurses Association, began negotiations last December. More than 20 negotiating sessions have been held to date, with a federal mediator involved in the talks from early on in the process.

To learn more about the strike, visit the UMass nurses’ Web page on the MNA Web site at www.massnurses.org, or call the strike office at 508-756-5800.