City Councilors Declare Solidarity With Striking Worcester Nurses

BOSTON — Boston city councilors Lydia Edwards and Ed Flynn joined nurses from St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester on the picket line this past weekend, as the nurses strike for safer patient-caregiver ratios. Roughly 800 nurses walked out of work on March 8 in an attempt to make hospital leaders listen to their concerns after a year of negotiations.

The hospital’s leadership has said it will remain fully staffed during the strike.

“They are certainly putting profits over people,” said Lydia Edwards, councilor for District 1, of the hospital’s administration at the council’s meeting Wednesday afternoon. “They have decided, based on profit margins, what the patient limit should be and what a nurse can typically handle. We’re talking about people’s lives being at stake.”

The councilors drafted a resolution to show support for the nurses, which passed unanimously at Wednesday’s meeting.

“Nurses don’t go on strike unless it’s an extreme situation,"said Liz Breadon, councilor for District 9. "I trust that when they report unsafe staffing levels that it is an extreme situation that forced them to go on strike."