Settlement or Strike: Decision Week Ahead in North Adams

NORTH ADAMS, Mass., Aug. 30 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- With a September 3 strike deadline looming, the Registered Nurses of North Adams Regional Hospital go back to the table for a final round of negotiations. The nurses are hopeful that management will come to their senses and withdraw the disastrous concessions they have kept on the table. The hospital still has proposals on the table that will be harmful to the patients and the nurses of NARH. The hospital wants to:

• Implement a series of proposals that will eliminate the right of nurses to a set schedule with guaranteed hours and a stable income.
• Remove the nurses' current right to refuse mandatory overtime when they are too ill or tired to provide safe care.
• Remove a provision ensuring that nurses have safe patient assignments.

If there is a settlement, the Thursday rally will be a celebration; if not it will be a support rally for the nurses who will be on strike.

Schedule for Week

Tuesday, August 31

Negotiations resume in North Adams (the nurses are committed to staying late and meeting again on Wednesday if there is progress toward a just solution).

Thursday, September 2, 5 p.m.

Support Rally (or victory celebration) at St. Elizabeth's of Hungary Parish Hall corner of Holden Street and St. Anthony's Drive in North Adams

Friday, September 3, 6 a.m.

Picketing begins as nurses leave hospital to join the line.

Directions: http://www.nbhealth.org/NARH/30/Directions.html

For the latest information check the MNA website at http://www.massnurses.org/news-and-events/archive/2010/narh-strike .

SOURCE Massachusetts Nurses Association