MGB Salem Hospital Nurses to Hold October 15 Informational Picket as Nurses Fight for a Fair Contract that Protects Patient Safety and Respects Nurses

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Oct 15, 2024, 08:56 ET

Nurses will hold an informational picket on Tuesday, October 15 outside Salem Hospital to protest Mass General Brigham's refusal to invest in a stable Salem RN workforce

SALEM, Mass., Oct. 15, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The registered nurses of Salem Hospital, represented by the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA), will hold an informational picket on Tuesday, October 15 as they advocate for a fair contract that values nurses, improves critical staffing levels, and better enables Salem nurses to provide safe patient care.

Informational Picket Details
Date: Tuesday, October 15, 2024
Time: 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Location: On the sidewalk outside 81 Highland Avenue, Salem, MA
Note: This picket is not a strike. Nurses can join when they are not working or on break and will picket without disrupting hospital access.

"This action will demonstrate our commitment to our patients and the need for Mass General Brigham to recruit and retain the nurses at Salem Hospital," said Kathy Schevis, Salem Hospital RN and MNA Co-Chair. "Instead of properly valuing the complex care we provide patients, MGB has offered non-competitive wages and threatened to take away our existing health insurance benefits. This undermines our workforce and makes it even harder to keep the nurses we need to deliver quality care."

"While Mass General Brigham executives make salaries worth millions of dollars and spend billions on expansion, Salem nurses are forced to deal with the stress and exhaustion of unsafe staffing," said Andrew Beaver, Salem Hospital RN and MNA Co-Chair. "Salem nurses will fight together on October 15^th for each other and our patients. MGB should stop devaluing the communities around Salem Hospital and invest in their care."

Negotiations Background

Salem nurses have been in negotiations since February 2024. They were joined in recent sessions by a mediator from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, an independent agency whose mission is to preserve and promote labor-management peace and cooperation.

The healthcare system and Salem Hospital are desperate for nurses. Patient care is at risk with the inadequate staffing levels present right now at Salem Hospital. Yet owner Mass General Brigham (MGB) has offered non-competitive wages and threatens to take away longstanding health insurance benefits.
Salem nurses are picketing over three main themes:
- Providing safe staffing through adequate investment by MGB in the Salem nurses' MNA contract.
- Ensuring patient safety by providing sufficient staffing so nurses have the necessary time and attention to give their patients.
- Protecting RN health insurance from a proposed takeaway that would increase costs for the majority of nurses.

MGB Financial Highlights

MGB made $579 million system-wide in profits during the fiscal period ending December 31, 2023, according to the Center for Health Information and Analysis.
Anne Klibanski, MGB's president and CEO, made a nearly 25% salary increase from 2020 to 2021, going from $4.3 million to more than $5 million. Klibanski now makes more than $6 million.
MGB is spending $2 billion expanding Mass General Hospital and Faulkner. MGB has also spent more than $200 million on construction at Salem Hospital. This follows construction of a $465 million HQ in Somerville and a reported $100 million MGB rebranding campaign.

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Founded in 1903, the Massachusetts Nurses Association is the largest union of registered nurses in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Its 25,000 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.

SOURCE Massachusetts Nurses Association