National NURSE

The nurses used the event to take issue
with UMass administration’s touting
of factory-modeled “lean production” methods
as a justification for its cuts and concessionary
demands. The nurses answered in
the media with a powerful response.
“We’re not factory workers,” said Colleen
Wolfe, an invasive radiology nurse and a
member of the UMass Memorial negotiating
team. “And our patients are not widgets
on an assembly line.”
“When you have an accident at a factory,
you do a recall,” added Lisa Cargill, vice chair
of the UMass committee. “When you have an
accident at a hospital, you have a funeral.”
In addition to nurses, the event drew
broad support from the labor community,
including Massachusetts AFL-CIO President,
Bobby Haynes, as well as local public
officials.
“They can find the money. If they have
$90 million in profits, some of it ought to go
where it should go – to the people that made
those profits, the nurses, and other workers
in these facilities,” Haynes told the
crowd. “We need to get the message out. We
need to fight. We need to secure justice and
honor and dignity for working people and
we’re tired of backing up; we’re tired of
giving in, we need some respect in this
community, and we’re going to get it from
these people. You deserve a good contract!”
“The days of profiting off patients’ sickness,
off of the backs of nurses are over.
Hang together and know we have your
backs,” said Jeff Breslin, RN, an NNU
member and president of the Michigan
Nurses Association, who spoke at the rally
on behalf of NNU. —David Schildmeier
Tufts RNs Protest
Floating Plan
MASSACHUSETTS
In response to a recently announced
plan to implement a policy that would
allow nearly all nurses at Tufts Medical
Center to float to cover for chronic
staffing shortages on other units, the
Massachusetts Nurses Association local
bargaining unit in early October staged a
silent protest in the highly trafficked lobby
of the medical center, which was attended by
more than 100 nurses dressed in black
scrubs, affixed with stickers that read
“Reject Forced Floating” and “Safe Staffing
Now.”
The protest occurred just prior to an
open forum for hospital staff by the hospital’s
Chief Nursing Officer Nancy Shendell-
Falik. As part of the protest, a dozen
star-shaped black balloons were delivered to
Shendell-Falik at the forum. The card with
the balloons read, “Mourn ing the death of
safe patient care at TMC.”
Nurses were outraged to learn of the
plan, introduced to the nurses’ MNA negotiating
committee, which would essentially
allow the hospital to ask any nurse to float to
another unit at any time, which not only is
in direct violation of the nurses’ union
contract, but also compromises nurses’ ability
to provide safe nursing practice. The
nurses immediately began to raise concerns
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person: Lucia Hwang. Telephone: (510) 273-2200. Complete mailing addresses of headquarters or general business office of publisher: Same
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in the October 2010 issue of this publication.
about the plan, and a flyer was circulated by
the union detailing the nurse’s concerns.
The union told management that the
appropriate place to raise this issue is at
upcoming union contract negotiations,
where the parties would have the obligation
to negotiate the policy, and nurses would
have the right to strike if they didn’t agree
with it. Whatever the hospital’s decision on
the plan, the MNA will address the issue
during its negotiations, along with a host of
other concerns related to poor staffing
conditions and deplorable working conditions
at the hospital.
Shendell-Falik’s misplaced floating plan is
just the latest in a series of decisions the hospital
has made that have angered the nursing
community, including the decision a year ago
to institute a new “model of care” at the hospital,
which consisted of increasing nurses’
patient assignments on most floors, while failing
to provide necessary support staff. Last
February, several hundred nurses picketed
outside the facility to protest the staffing cuts.
What was once one of the better-staffed
hospitals in Boston, if not the state, is now
one of the worst-staffed hospitals. In fact,
over the 12-month period since the staffing
cuts were implemented, nurses at the hospital
had filed 328 official reports of unsafe
staffing conditions that threatened the nurses’
ability to deliver quality patient care. The
hospital neglected to post its new staffing
plan on the hospital association’s “Patients
First” website, so the public couldn’t
compare its staffing plan to other hospitals
in the area.
“We are saddened and appalled at the
hospital’s total lack of regard for nursing
practice and the quality of care our patients
receive,” said Barbara Tiller, RN, chair of the
nurses’ bargaining unit. “Since management
refuses to listen to us, we are taking all
necessary steps to make sure our voice is
heard. We feel we have exhausted every
means of resolving the unacceptable changes
the hospital administration has implemented.
We are being forced to take these measures,
because our patients and our licenses
are on the line.” – David Schildmeier
0CTOBER 2010 WWW.NATIONALNURSESUNITED.ORG NATIONAL NURSE 7