Nurses at Newton-Wellesley Hospital Reach Tentative Contract Agreement

NEWTON, MA - Registered nurses at Newton-Wellesley Hospital have come to a tentative arrangement with hospital management and Partners HealthCare, postponing a possible one-day strike voted on earlier this month.

The Massachusetts Nurses Association, a union that represents close to 1,000 nurses at Newton Wellesley, sought the strike in the face of stalled contract negotiations with Partners HealthCare, which owns the hospital.

According to the union 90 percent of nurses voted in favor of authorizing a strike.

That strike notice has since been withdrawn, though the agreement is not official until it is ratified by the full nurse membership of the union.

The new contract will make improvements to patient care, in addition to increasing wages for nurses.

If approved, the contract will have a start date of Oct. 1, 2015 and include a retroactive 1 percent pay increase. Nurses' wages will increase by another percent before the contract ends on March 31, 2018.

Other stipulations include reducing the definition of a "full-time nurse" for health insurance from 40 hours per week to 35, forming a Stat Team of auxiliary nurses to assist on-the-clock nurses with heavy workloads and restricting the number of patients a charge nurse is assigned.

“This tentative deal averts a strike and includes important improvements to patient care, including the addition of a nurse ‘Stat Team’ that will assist nurses throughout the hospital as they encounter short staffing and other obstacles while caring for their patients," Laurie Andersen, a registered nurse in the emergency department at NWH and co-chair of the MNA/NNU Local Bargaining Unit, said in a press release.

She added that though nurses are pleased with the agreement, they are not yet satisfied with Partners HealthCare.

"We remain troubled by how Partners is treating its patients and nurses, especially considering the corporation’s vast financial resources, and we will continue to advocate every day for the ability to provide the best possible care," Andersen said in the release.

Newton-Wellesley Hospital spokesman Brian O'Dea told Patch that he believes the deal will benefit both the hospital and its nurses.

"We're very pleased - both sides," O'Dea said. "The nurses take great care of our patients and we look forward to continuing to work with them."