© 2024
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
An update has been released for the Android version of the WAMC App that addresses performance issues. Please check the Google Play Store to download and update to the latest version.

BMC Strike Averted As Union Looks To Ratify New Contract

https://www.bmcnurses.com/

22 months of negotiations, one strike, and two strike threats later, Berkshire Medical Center has reached a tentative contract agreement with its unionized nurses.

Just after 1 a.m. Friday, Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield and the Massachusetts Nurses Association announced that the two sides had reached enough of a compromise to avert a one-day strike planned for Monday.

“So management pretty much gave us what we needed to secure our contract, to satisfy the nurses, and to get the patient safety in the hospital that we have been fighting for, for 22 months," said Registered nurse and union bargaining committee member Amber Van Bramer.

She said they secured language from the hospital guaranteeing staffing increases.

“The hospital agreed to charge nurse without an assignment on day and evening shifts," said Van Bramer, "which currently is supposed to happen but without enough staff, the charge nurse gets pulled to take an assignment. So they agreed to have language that gives charge nurse no assignment.” 

Van Bramer said the mother-baby unit required exactly that kind of unassigned charge nurse.

“And they also gave us additional nurses on the nightshift," she said. "The nightshift does usually take a patient assignment, but there’s no help for them, there’s no relief, there’s no resources. So we have about 7.5 FTEs on the nightshift and on the weekends for extra help and extra resources for the nurses.”

FTEs are “full-time equivalents,” a unit of measurement that allows employers to convert the hours of multiple part-time employees into the hours worked by full-time employees.

In a statement, BMC spokesman Michael Leary said the hospital is “looking forward to returning our focus solely to delivering the high quality patient care that our community rightly expects of us” with “the distraction and divisiveness of strike threats now gone.”

While the strike has been averted, one crucial step lies between this tentative agreement and the end of the almost two years of negotiations.

“We will have to take it to a vote to our members," said Van Bramer, "and once they agree to it and want to ratify it, then our new contract becomes in effect.”

Van Bramer said the bargaining accomplishment offered a welcome reprieve to the nurses’ union.

“The nurses were so, so proud of themselves for sticking up for what they believed in, even though it was a hard fight, and everyone was just so appreciative of each other," she told WAMC. "The atmosphere was amazing in that room last night.”

BMC described the outcome as “great news for the entire Berkshire community and all hospital employees,” and thanked the community and its employees for the “solid support” it received during the negotiations. The hospital is the largest employer in the county.

“Staffing issues were met," said Van Bramer. "We agreed to a five-year contract, so the contract goes until September 30th, 2021.”

The union will schedule a vote in the coming weeks. A simple majority is required to ratify it. 

Josh Landes has been WAMC's Berkshire Bureau Chief since February 2018, following stints at WBGO Newark and WFMU East Orange. A passionate advocate for Western Massachusetts, Landes was raised in Pittsfield and attended Hampshire College in Amherst, receiving his bachelor's in Ethnomusicology and Radio Production. His free time is spent with his cat Harry, experimental electronic music, and exploring the woods.
Related Content