Registered nurses at Beth Israel Lahey Health's Anna Jaques Hospital in Newburyport, Mass., voted in favor of a three-day strike if hospital executives continue to fail to address long-standing issues.
The vote comes after yearslong efforts by the nurses to get hospital management to address issues including pay, understaffing, nurse recruitment and retention, and a failure to provide RNs with resources essential to quality patient care, according to an Oct. 5 news release from the Massachusetts Nurses Association, the union representing the Beth Israel workers.
The nurses entered negotiations for a new union contract in September.
The vote authorizing a strike does not mean the nurses will strike. Rather, it gives the nurses' negotiating committee the authorization to call a strike if it is deemed necessary after the contract's Dec. 31 expiration date.
"Every day we delay addressing our concerns, that's another day our patients see their care and their potential safety compromised, and another day where we see another nurse walk out the door for better pay and better conditions," Eileen Ryan, RN, a nurse on the hospital's surgical floor and co-chair of the nurses' local bargaining unit at AJH, said in the release. "We love our hospital and our community and will do everything possible to restore it to its former highest standards."
In a statement shared with Becker's, the hospital said its leadership offered emergency department nurses double time plus incentive pay for any nurse who picks up additional shifts, which was rejected by union leadership. It also offered a 7% wage increase this summer, which was also rejected. Hospital leadership hopes that "timely, effective bargaining can reach a fair resolution that increases wages."
"As Anna Jaques Hospital begins its negotiations with the MNA for a new contract, a key priority is reaching a fair agreement that increases wages for the outstanding nurses serving our community," Christine Kipp, BSN, RN, who serves as interim chief nursing officer, said in the statement. "We hope to move quickly in reaching agreement on contract terms that will support both retention and recruiting goals. In the interim, our nursing team is taking a wide array of steps to assure that we continue to fulfill our mission of providing high quality care to our community. This includes engaging temporary staff, providing incentives to existing staff to provide coverage when necessary, and providing intensive onboarding to assist our newest nurses in integrating into the AJH community."