The union representing nurses at Pittsfield, Mass.-based Berkshire Medical Center said Friday that staffing continues to be the key sticking point in negotiations with the hospital.
Massachusetts Nurses Association and Berkshire have been in negotiations for about a year. Most recently, the hospital rejected nurses' revised staffing proposals from July, the union said in an emailed statement to Becker's Hospital Review.
"The hospital flatly rejected all of the proposals, despite nurses crafting revised proposals that address specific BMC patient needs and move away from seeking enforceable staffing grids in the contract," the union said.
MNA added, "The revised staffing proposals, for example, include charge nurses having no assignment on days and evening and a reduced patient assignment on nights (with a few exceptions where charge nurses already have regular assignments/other duties). Charge nurses need to be without patient assignments wherever possible so that they can coordinate the care being provided by other staff RNs and support staff on a unit. They also need to be able to jump in and assist their fellow RNs when necessary."
Arthur Milano, vice president of human resources at BMC's parent company, Pittsfield-based Berkshire Health Systems, told The Berkshire Eagle the hospital believes it has made a proposal to the union addressing nurses' staffing concerns.
According to the report, this proposal involves establishing councils on each nursing unit to monitor patient volume, along with other factors, and make staffing recommendations as necessary.
Mr. Milano told the publication the CNO would receive these recommendations and could be looked at further by the hospital's COO.
"We feel that we've given them a seat at the table that [they've] never had before," he added.
But the union said this is "already effectively the situation, and it has not worked," noting nurses filed nearly 500 unsafe staffing reports since October 2015.
Aside from staffing, MNA said the other main sticking point in negotiations is health insurance.
On Wednesday, the union announced it filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board against the hospital, "citing management's months-long refusal to provide information necessary to negotiate over health insurance, which is a mandatory subject of bargaining under federal labor law."
Mr. Milano told The Berkshire Eagle the hospital "still question[s] the validity of their asking for that" data.
Berkshire nurses authorized a strike in July, meaning their bargaining committee has approval to call a strike if they so choose. However, a strike date has not been scheduled.
The union said it is "working on confirming next bargaining dates. Nurses are looking into their next steps and will continue to gather support in their community."
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