With shouts of “Dana-Farber you can’t hide, we can see your greedy side” and signs of “Support the front line, not the bottom line,” nurses went on strike and picketed outside of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Merrimack Valley in Methuen for half of a week in September.
“We need competent providers here in the community,” said nurse practitioner Kate Mitchell. “We deserve it and our patients deserve it. We’re out here fighting for our patients.”
This was the year of the strike for the Merrimack Valley, as nurses and teachers alike fought for equal pay and fair working environments.
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Merrimack Valley nurses fought because they were paid 45% less than their Boston counterparts, according to Mitchell.
The proposed wage scale, in which nurses earn more money for years of experience, is about 22% less than the pay scale in Boston, according to Joe Markman, associate director of communications with the Massachusetts Nurses Association.
Mitchell said nurses at Chestnut Hill Dana-Farber in Newton receive the same pay as the main campus Dana-Farber in Boston.
The strike seems to have been a long time coming, with negotiations for the first collective bargaining agreement starting last December. The almost 40 nurses at the Methuen location voted for a strike on Aug. 3 after months of negotiations. As the year drew to a close, there was still no agreement.
When Dana-Farber expanded to the Merrimack Valley in 2020, it united its physician practices in Lawrence and Methuen into one outpatient location, at 5 Branch St. The nurses were told they could not join the union in Boston, according to Mitchell. The National Labor Relations Board ruled that the Methuen-location needed to be a separate bargaining entity.
Dozens of Steward Holy Family Hospital nurses held informational pickets in October at both Haverhill and Methuen locations to draw attention to the struggles around pay and issues with providing safe, quality care to patients.
Problems with recruiting and retention of skilled workers is largely driven by the lack of competitive pay, according to unionized nurses.
“It’s the same battle every single time, everywhere,” said Katie Murphy, Massachusetts Nurses Association president. “Nurses don’t want to work under these conditions. We have to address the staffing and the issues, like assaults.”
Holy Family nurses are paid nearly 20% less compared to local counterparts, according to Jennifer Johnson, associate director of communication at the MNA.
“Second only to Beth Israel Lahey’s Anna Jaques Hospital in Newburyport, the two Holy Family Hospitals’ wages are lower than any hospital in the northeast region of Massachusetts,” Johnson said.
Dozens of nursing positions remain unfilled. In addition, Holy Family has been laying off many positions, according to Valarie Roderick.
The Haverhill hospital has closed beds on several units to the point that patient capacity has “been dramatically reduced,” according to emergency room nurse Jane Emory. This includes the medical and surgical unit that went from 32 beds to 18.
The geriatric psychiatric unit went from 17 beds to 11. The adult psychiatric unit in Haverhill has also struggled with non-competitive wages and understaffing, according to Emory.
The intake, however, is capped at the Methuen location. The lack of local resources forces some patients to go 50 miles or more away from their homes to receive psychiatric care, according to Murphy. Families then are not always able to visit, which results in more difficult care procedures.
One demonstration, however, that ended successfully this year was when hundreds of teachers, students and parents struck in Andover for almost a week, as they were protesting the lack of a contract.
The union demanded an increase in pay for instructional assistants, one of the lowest-paid positions in the district.
After three missed school days and hours at the negotiating table, Andover teachers came to an agreement with the district — the one strike in the area that ended on a positive note.
The new contract boosts pay for teachers by 15.5% and for instructional assistants by 34%, each over four years. The agreement also included eight weeks of fully paid parental leave. There was also a provision allowing the use of accrued time off for medical or parental leaves.
“With this deal, the administration gained important tools to continue strengthening the instructional practices that we know students need to belong, strive, and thrive,” said Tracey Spruce, chair of the Andover School Committee.
Follow Monica on Twitter at @MonicaSager3.
Follow Monica on Twitter at @MonicaSager3
Follow Monica on Twitter at @MonicaSager3