RNs at Nashoba Valley Medical Center Ratify Three-Year Contract
Includes significant improvements in wages and working conditions; RNs hopeful that agreement will improve nurse recruitment and retention
Includes significant improvements in wages and working conditions; RNs hopeful that agreement will improve nurse recruitment and retention
AYER, Mass., Dec. 2, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The 125 registered nurses of Nashoba Valley Medical Center (NVMC), who are represented by the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA), voted yesterday to ratify their first union contract.
The three-year agreement, which is effective immediately and runs through Dec. 31, 2018, brings to successful conclusion negotiations that began when the RNs joined together as a union in July 2014.
"We really hope that this agreement will help improve recruitment and retention of nurses," said NVMC surgical RN and MNA co-chair Fran Karaska, "and we hope that will make the care we provide to the community better than ever, which is our goal."
Highlights of the agreement include:
The vote to ratify the contract followed the nurses' November 13 settlement of a tentative agreement. Yesterday's vote was held from 6:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the hospital.
"We are so proud of the nurses and their families for sticking together for each other and for the community," says NVMC emergency department RN and MNA co-chair Sue Fluet. "Now, not only do we have a union, we now have a contract. Our success will say something to everybody who doesn't yet have a union: We have the ability to stand up for each other. We want to get the best results for a successful hospital for the patients and the staff and everybody. It makes you feel good hoping that now the hospital will be an even better place for the community."
"We could not have done this without the support of the community," added Fluet. "And we thank them from the bottom of our hearts for everything they did."
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/National Nurses United
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