GREENFIELD — There may be another nurses strike at Baystate Franklin Medical Center.
A second one-day nurses’ strike is possible if the hospital and the bargaining committee of the Massachusetts Nurses Association are unable to reach agreement on working conditions and health insurance.
“The 200 nurses at Baystate Franklin are more united than ever for patient safety,” said Donna Stern, senior co-chair of the MNA Bargaining Committee for Baystate Franklin nurses. “We are facing a giant corporation that will not listen to local nurses or our local community,” she said. “Baystate Health would rather squeeze profits out of public dollars than make sure nurses can provide safe patient care or give them a decent health plan.”
The hospital and the nurses union are in their 15th month of bargaining. In June, the Baystate Franklin nurses held a one-day strike, although they were pre-emptively locked out by the hospital the night before and locked out for a total of three days.
On Thursday, about 85 percent of the nurses voted to authorize the bargaining committee to call for a one-day strike if a contract agreement isn’t reached. No strike has been scheduled, says union spokesman Joe Markman, but if a strike is called by the committee, the nurses are required by law to give a 10-day notice to the hospital.
According to the union, Baystate Franklin nurses have worked almost 4,000 shifts of 12 hours or more during the past year, despite national best practices that nurses should not work more than 12-hour shifts. The union also says the hospital management took away two health insurance options that the nurses want restored.
After the June 26 strike and a related three-day lockout, Baystate made another offer to the nurses, who voted to reject that offer on Aug. 15. The nurses began negotiating for a new contract in November 2016 to replace the contract that expired on Dec. 31, 2016.
When asked for comment, Baystate Franklin spokeswoman Molly MacMunn sent a statement saying: “The Baystate Franklin Medical Center team remains focused on a good-faith effort to reach a fair conclusion to contract negotiations.”
“During our most recent session, we made positive progress on a number of outstanding issued,” she said. “The proposals we made include an updated approach to staffing that maintains flexibility, meets shared quality goals and is consistent with staffing proposals in other MNA contracts.”