WORCESTER — High ranking members of the Massachusetts Nursing Association say that Tenet Healthcare is extending the length of the nurses strike as a union busting measure. 

“After eight long months, sadly, it is clear that Tenet was never interested in a good faith effort to negotiate an equitable contract, but their ultimate goal is to destroy our union to prevent us from exercising our legally protected right to protect our patients and our community.  We will not let that happen,” said Marlena Pellegrino, a co-chair of the MNA’s local bargaining unit, in a recent statement from the union.

Back in August, Saint Vincent hired over 100 “permanent replacement nurses” who took over for some of the nurses on strike, which has been ongoing since March 8. It was also around this time that hospital administrators made an offer to the nurses’ union, stating that they would increase nurse staffing, improve workplace safety measures, reduce out-of-pocket healthcare expenses and give 35 percent raises to some nurses. Initially, the union agreed to the deal, but balked when they found out that some of the striking nurses would not be able to return to their prior – often specialized – positions.

“We accepted that offer with the idea that we would return to our former jobs. There are nurses in our bargaining unit who have 20, 30, 40 years’ experience in their area of expertise,” said Dominique Muldoon, the co-chair of the MNA’s local bargaining unit who worked at Saint Vincent Hospital for 19 years.

On Oct. 15, hospital administrators issued their “last, best and final offer in negotiations with the MNA for a new contract,” according to a statement on the hospital’s website. The final offer, akin to the offer extended in August, does not allow for the nurses who remain on strike to return to their prior positions. In addition, the MNA said in a statement that the hospital’s offer called for all nurses to retract their unfair labor practice charges, thereby, “opening the door for Tenet to continue its efforts to retaliate against the striking nurses.” 

“[T]he union is holding up an agreement to return hundreds of nurses back to work over a small number of nurses who may have to return to jobs that are different from their exact pre-strike positions,” Saint Vincent Hospital CEO Carolyn Jackson said in the Oct. 15 “final offer” statement. “We believe that nurses deserve the generous increases and staffing changes that are reflected in our final offer, and therefore we are exercising our right to implement these terms.”

According to David Schildmeier, the Director of Public Communications at the MNA, the hospital has intentionally extended the length of the strike and has gone out of its way to replace at least 100 striking nurses who are in the MNA’s bargaining unit in an attempt to bust the union. One of the nurses that prompted an unfair labor practice charge from the union, Schildmeier said, was a woman with 40 years’ experience in the level two nursery who is also on the MNA’s committee. He said she was replaced with a nurse with less than a year’s experience. 

“The length of the strike has to do with Tenet trying to break the union and having no respect for their workers,” said Schildmeier. Tenet Healthcare is the for-profit, Texas-based healthcare company that runs Saint Vincent Hospital.

Schildmeier said the most significant proof that Tenet was attempting to bust the union was Tenet’s replacement of over 100 striking nurses in the bargaining unit and the excessive amount of money the hospital spent throughout the strike. 

“Everything they have done, all the bad faith bargaining, all the unfair efforts to target and punish union leaders makes clear that this was never for them a strike about issues at the table, but their attempt to break the will of the union in the hopes that these nurses would leave the hospital or give up their strike and their voice to speak on behalf of their patients,” said Schildmeier.

Muldoon shared Schildmeier’s sentiment, adding that proof of the hospital’s desire to bust the unit was in the $100 million or more the hospital has spent since the strike began, rather than attempting to make their present employees “happy and productive.” Muldoon said the hospital spent the $100 million on the hiring and lodging of replacement nurses and security. 

“It’s just very punitive.  If you spend $100 million on a strike instead of negotiating, there seems to be something wrong there,” said Muldoon. Later adding, “It wouldn’t have cost them $100 million to settle this contract. I don’t think it would have cost them $50 million.”

Schildmeier added that the union had sent an official request to the CEO of Tenet Healthcare requesting the documentation of the costs incurred by the hospital throughout the strike, but never received a response. When asked how the MNA came up with this $100 million figure, Schildmeier said it’s all in the public domain. 

“At the beginning of the strike, Tenet confirmed to the media that it cost them $5.4 million per week to hire the replacement nurses they were using to keep the hospital fully operational,” he said. “They kept the hospital fully operational from March 8 – the end of July, which is over 20 weeks x $5.4 million each week.  Also, it was reported by the Worcester Telegram that the city of Worcester reported Tenet was spending $210,000 per week over that same time period for police details.  So, the figure was well over $100 million through Aug. 1 alone.”

We reached out to Matthew Clyburn, the hospital’s communications manager, but he declined to comment for this story.