‘This is not where we expected to be’: Massachusetts nurses strike hits 7-month mark – By Ben Kesslen (NBC News) / Oct 10 2021
Nurses at Saint Vincent Hospital in Worcester, Massachusetts, are striking over working conditions and staffing issues.
The nursing strike at Saint Vincent Hospital in Worcester, Massachusetts, marked its seventh month Friday, as negotiations between the union and hospital officials continued to deteriorate with no end in sight.
More than 700 nurses walked off the job March 8, citing chronic staffing issues made worse by the pandemic. Despite months of negotiations, the workers, represented by the Massachusetts Nurses Association, said the hospital owned by Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare would not meet their demands. The nurses now hold the record for the longest nurses strike in state history.
“This is not where we expected to be,” said Marie Ritacco, 58, who started her career as a nurse at Saint Vincent in 1983. Ritacco said she and her peers saw assignments getting more intense, with more patients to take care of and less ancillary staff.
The nurses maintain that the nurse-to-patient ratio had been at an unmanageable level, leading to a decrease in the quality of care they were able to provide. The staffing problems started before the pandemic, and union officials said they had been negotiating with the hospital for more than 18 months before voting to strike.
