Newton-Wellesley Nurses Reach Tentative Agreement, Avert Strike

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Registered nurses at Newton Wellesley Hospital last week issued the required 10-day notice of their intent to strike, for a day, on June 30, “in response to deteriorating patient care conditions and demands by Partners Health Care to cut their benefits in the wake of posting more than a half billion dollars in profits,” according to an announcement.

Now, they have averted the need to strike.

At negotiations with a federal mediator on Monday, the nurses negotiated a tentative agreement with hospital management, according to a release.

The one-year pact includes a reduction in the floating of nurses as a staffing mechanism, a 1 percent across-the-board pay raise for all nurses retroactive to Oct. 1, 2014, and no change in the nurses’ current benefit package.

The new contract would expire on Sept. 30, 2015. A date to ratify the agreement by the membership has yet to be determined.