GREENFIELD — City Councilor Doug Mayo thinks the council needs to consider what it can do to assist Baystate Franklin Medical Center nurses in their labor dispute.
Mayo, a former union leader himself, spoke in support of the nurses at Baystate Franklin.
“Shame on Baystate,” Mayo told the crowd at Wednesday’s one-day nurses strike. He added he thought it’s interesting the hospital can pay about $1 million to fund the response to the strike, but can’t staff the nurses to levels the union is seeking. He said Baystate is running the Greenfield hospital like a corporation and not as a nonprofit.
After the rally Wednesday, Mayo and fellow Councilor Sheila Gilmour spoke about their frustrations with how the local hospital is run and what, if anything, the council might do.
“It really bothers me that they’re getting tax dollars from the citizens of Greenfield and treating the nurses in our community in a way that is so disrespectful,” Mayo said.
Gilmour said she has been thinking a lot about what she can do in her position, but wasn’t quite sure. “I wish there was something more to do, with teeth,” she said.
The first-year councilors said they don’t see an ordinance as a possibility but a resolution could be possible, although they were cautious about predicting whether it could have a tangible effect.
Gilmour mentioned the idea of the property tax-exempt hospital making payments in lieu of taxes as a way to potentially reimburse the city for some of what it spends that benefits the High Street facility.
Mayo said it might be worth bringing up the idea of whether certain larger nonprofits in Greenfield should have their taxes waived at all.
Both Mayo and Gilmour, though, aired on the side of caution in discussing ideas, so as to avoid violating the Open Meeting Law.
On Tuesday, Councilors Otis Wheeler and Tim Dolan said they didn’t think there was much they could do in general, speaking to an offer Congressman Jim McGovern made to help mediate the talks between the nurses and the hospital administration.
Wheeler noted the hospital did not accept Congressman Jim McGovern’s offer to mediate.
“I think it speaks to their willingness to listen to third-party voices,” Wheeler said.
You can reach Joshua Solomon at:
jsolomon@recorder.com
413-772-0261, ext. 264