RNs at Marlborough Hospital Reach Tentative Agreement with Management for Three-Year Contract

Includes the creation of a committee to address nurse staffing issues, reasonable wage increases

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Aug 27, 2015, 09:47 ET

MARLBOROUGH, Mass., Aug. 27, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The registered nurses at Marlborough Hospital, represented by the Massachusetts Nurses Association, and UMass Memorial Health Care reached a tentative agreement Tuesday on a three-year contract that aims to improve RN-to-patient staffing and overall patient safety.

The settlement was the result of 10 months of negotiations and marks the last MNA-represented hospital in the UMass Memorial system to settle a contract. Nurses have recently settled at the UMass Memorial and UMass University campuses, and at UMass Memorial HealthAlliance campuses in Leominster and Burbank.

"We are very pleased with the outcome of the negotiations," said Julie Lyver, RN and chairperson of the of the MNA/Marlborough Hospital bargaining unit. "We feel this agreement strengthens our respectful relationship with hospital management."

The MNA represents 198 nurses at Marlborough Hospital. Highlights of the tentative agreement include:

The creation of a Marlborough RN Staffing Committee. Its goal will be to review and issue recommendations to hospital management concerning RN staffing concerns that have been brought forward by RNs throughout the hospital.
Reasonable wage increases for nurses, including a 4.5 percent pay increase over the life of the contract.

The contract is expected to be ratified by mid-September and would expire Nov. 14, 2017.

Founded in 1903, the Massachusetts Nurses Association/National Nurses United is the largest professional health care organization and the largest union of registered nurses in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Its 23,000 members advance the nursing profession by fostering high standards of nursing practice, promoting the economic and general welfare of nurses in the workplace, projecting a positive and realistic view of nursing, and by lobbying the Legislature and regulatory agencies on health care issues affecting nurses and the public. The MNA is a founding member of National Nurses United, the largest national nurses union in the United States with more than 170,000 members from coast to coast.

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SOURCE Massachusetts Nurses Association