Nurses and supporters at Mercy Medical Center to deliver community petition to administrators urging Trinity Health to respect nurses and patients by agreeing to a fair contract
SPRINGFIELD, Mass., June 28, 2021 / PRNewswire / – Registered nurses at Mercy Medical Center, represented by the Massachusetts Nurses Association, will deliver a petition signed by more than 800 community members to Paul Mancinone, Chairman of the Board of Trinity Health of New England and Trustees of Mercy Medical Center, the Wednesday June 30.
The petition, created by Massachusetts Jobs with Justice, reads in part: “These frontline workers deserve to be heard and to have a fair contract, and the community deserves safe, high quality care. It’s time to strike a fair deal with the nurses at Mercy Medical Center and invest in the future of our community. “
Petition delivery details
When: Wednesday June 30 at 11:00
Or: 1441 Main Street, downtown Springfield, MA
How? ‘Or’ What: Nurses and Mercy’s supporters will come together to respond to Trinity Health’s refusal to accept a contract that respects nurses and provides them with the conditions they need to care for patients safely. They will attempt to deliver the petition to Mancinone at his office.
The approximately 400 MNA nurses at Mercy Medical Center are negotiating a contract to succeed their contract which expired on December 31, 2020. Nurses held an information picket in April and provide for a series of public actions following the delivery of the petition to encourage hospital administrators to exercise their oversight duties and ensure that Mercy and Trinity Health are properly supporting nurses in their mission to provide safe and high quality care in the community.
“Despite our work to keep the community safe and healthy during the pandemic and beyond, Trinity executives continue to be understaffed at the hospital, resulting in unsafe working conditions,” the nurses wrote. from the Mercy Medical Center MNA bargaining committee in a recent letter to the hospital trustees. “Trinity’s rudimentary staffing model leads to nurse burnout and harms Mercy’s predominantly Black and Latin patient population. Trinity has not worked with nurses to address the core issues that cause or contribute to the under -Chronic workforce and Mercy’s inability to hire and retain both nurses and other staff. ” For a copy of the e-mail letter [email protected].
Trinity Health’s failure to properly support and protect nurses in Mercy during the COVID-19 pandemic and the unilateral changes made by the company to the working conditions of nurses have prompted nurses to organize information pickets in May 2020 and August 2020. Trinity took over Mercy Medical Center in 2013 when it acquired Sisters of Providence through a merger with Catholic Health East. Situated at Michigan, Trinity has 92 hospitals nationwide and has nearly $ 20 billion in annual turnover. In the second half of 2020, its net profit reached $ 2.7 billion, from $ 805 million during the same period the previous year.
Problems highlighted
- Mercy’s nurses know the needs of their patients and demand safer staffing levels to ensure high quality care at all times. Trinity increasingly floats nurses around the hospital, even when they may not be familiar with specific patient conditions, equipment, or procedures.
- Mercy’s nurses are fighting to restore the paid time off they and their families deserve. Nurses need to be able to rest and recharge their batteries so that they can provide the best possible care to members of their community.
- Mercy’s nurses are seeking improved Medicare costs and a fair wage increase that will help retain and recruit nurses.
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Founded in 1903, the Massachusetts Nurses Association is the largest union of registered nurses in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Its 23,000 members advance the nursing profession by encouraging high standards of nursing practice, promoting the economic and general well-being of nurses in the workplace, projecting a positive and realistic view of nursing, and lobbying. the legislature and regulatory bodies on health issues affecting nurses. and the public.
Massachusetts Nurses Association
