With Strike Averted – Tonight’s 5 PM Pre-Strike Rally is Now a Celebration. Massachusetts Nurses Association, September 2, 2010 Marathon negotiations over the last two days have lead to a tentative agreement this morning between the Massachusetts Nurses Association bargaining unit and the North Adams Regional Hospital. Due to the tentative settlement the strike scheduled for September 3 has been averted, Negotiations over the contract between the 102 registered nurses and the hospital have been going on since January. The primary outstanding issues had been the hospital’s concessionary proposals that the nurses believe would have been disastrous ... Marathon

North Adams Transcript, September 2, 2010 North Adams - Registered nurses at North Adams Regional Hospital reached a tentative contract agreement this morning at 10:15 and averted a strike, the local union of the Massachusetts Nurses Association has reported. "We're happy," said Ruth O'Hern, chairwoman of the nurses' negotiating committee. "Our shifts are protected, and we have a two-year agreement." The settlement came after a 24-hour marathon negotiating sesson. The nurses have been without a contract since March 31 and had planned to strike Friday at 6 AM. A support rally planned for 5 PM today at Saint Elizabeth of Hungary Parish Center will now be a victory celebration, O'Hern said. The public is invited.

North Adams Transcript, September 2, 2010 North Adams - Registered nurses and management at North Adams Regional Hospital remained at an impasse over contract talks late Wednesday night, but both sides continued to negotiate as they hoped to avoid a nurses’ strike on Friday. "We’re prepared to go to midnight or as long as it takes to get a contract," said Ruth O’Hern, chairwoman of the bargaining committee for the local union of the Massachusetts Nurses Association. Hospital officials have declined to comment on the negotiations until they are complete. Meanwhile the local union, which has 103 members, plans to stage a support rally today at 5 PM at Saint Elizabeth of Hungary Parish Center.

Glenn Drohan, Berkshire Eagle, September 1, 2010

North Adams - As a strike Friday by registered nurses continues to loom for North Adams Regional Hospital, bargaining talks between the nurses union and hospital management remained at impasse late Tuesday night after a full day and night of negotiations.

"As of right now, the strike is still on," said Ruth O'Hern, chairwoman of the local unit of the Massachusetts Nurses Association. "They've asked us to postpone it, to allow them to work out what they need to work out while we continue to go to work, but I don't see that happening."

Employer says cuts must be made to retiree benefits. Katie Johnston Chase, Boston Globe, August 31, 2010 Following a ruling by the state labor board in favor of the Massachusetts Nurses Association, Cambridge Health Alliance and union representatives are headed back to the bargaining table in an attempt to hash out retiree health benefits for more than 325 nurses at Cambridge Hospital. The nurses are already declaring victory, but the Alliance said cuts to employee retirement benefits remain necessary to keep the financially struggling hospital group afloat. ... Cambridge

John Commins, HealthLeaders Media, August 31, 2010 Cambridge Health Alliance CEO Dennis D. Keefe says the nonprofit health system is reviewing legal options in the wake of a state labor board ruling that struck down CHA's unilateral cuts to health benefits for retired nurses at Cambridge Hospital. Massachusetts' Commonwealth Employment Relations Board ruled that CHA violated state labor laws and failed to demonstrate sufficient financial need when it declared an impasse in negotiations and cut health benefits for retired nurses by 40%. The unilaterally imposed cuts raised retirees' share of health insurance to 50%, up from 10%. ... Labor

David Bacon, t r u t h o u t, August 27, 2010 Early in the morning of July 21, police stormed the offices of the Iraqi Electrical Utility Workers Union in Basra, the poverty-stricken capital of Iraq's oil-rich south. A shamefaced officer told Hashmeya Muhsin, the first woman to head a national union in Iraq, that they'd come to carry out the orders of Electricity Minister Hussain al-Shahristani to shut the union down. As more police arrived, they took the membership records, the files documenting often-atrocious working conditions, the leaflets for demonstrations protesting Basra's agonizing power outages, the computers and the phones. ... Is

James Parks, AFL-CIO, August 20, 2010 As US combat troops head home from Iraq, new evidence shows there is much to be done before all Iraqis are truly free. In a letter to Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka strongly protests a recent government order that bans all trade union activities in the government-owned electrical industry. The order by Iraq’s minister of electricity prohibits ministry officials from dealing with unions and instructs them to take back all the benefits electrical unions have negotiated in recent years. ... AFL-CIO

Massachusetts Nurses Association, August 30, 2010 With a September 3 strike deadline looming, the Registered Nurses of North Adams Regional Hospital (NARH) 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 ... Settlement

Says CHA Broke the Law in Ceasing Negotiations and Cutting Retiree Health. Massachusetts Nurses Association, August 30, 2010

• Orders Nurses’ Retiree Health Benefit to be Restored Immediately
• Orders Hospital to Make Whole Any Nurses Negatively Impacted
• Orders Hospital to Participate in Mediation for a Fair Settlement ... In

Jen Thomas, Cambridge Chronicle, August 30, 2010

Cambridge - In what the nurses’ union is calling “a complete victory,” the state ruled last Friday that the Cambridge Health Alliance violated state labor laws when it cut nurses’ retiree health benefits earlier this summer.

In its final ruling, the Commonwealth Employment Relations Board rejected the Health Alliance’s argument that financial circumstances forced the health organization to declare an impasse after only five negotiations and cut nurses’ retiree health benefits by 40 percent.

Donna Goodison, Boston Herald, August 30, 2010 The Cambridge Health Alliance has been dealt a blow by the Commonwealth Employment Relations Board in its labor battle against nurses at Cambridge Hospital. The CERB ruled Friday that the Cambridge Health Alliance failed to show its financial health was so dire that it warranted unilateral cuts in the nurses’ retiree health insurance benefits before its contract with the Massachusetts Nurses Association expired. At issue, was a 40 percent cut in to retiree health benefits for most nurses, raising the required amount of retirees’ contributions for health insurance to 50 percent of premiums, up from 10 percent. The Cambridge Health Alliance said it was disappointed with the ruling and is reviewing its legal options.

Boston Globe, August 30, 2010 The Massachusetts Nurses Association today hailed a ruling by the state's Employment Relations Board as a "complete victory" for its member nurses at Cambridge Hospital who are seeking to negotiate a labor contract with the hospital's operator, the Cambridge Health Alliance. In a statement, the Cambridge Health Alliance expressed disappointment and said it is reviewing its legal options in regards to its next step. The two sides have been locked in a dispute for several months. In June, the Massachusetts Nurses Association, a nurses union that represents nearly 400 nurses at Cambridge Hospital, rejected a contract offer ... State

Sector sees layoffs, cuts. Robert Gavin, Boston Globe, August 29, 2010 Through good times, bad times, and everything in between, the one industry that Massachusetts could count on to keep adding jobs was health care. Not anymore. The stalwart of the state economy is struggling these days as expenses rise, patient visits decline, reimbursements shrink, and pressure to control health care costs intensifies. Over the past six months, according to state statistics, the health care sector has had no employment growth, a stunning development for an industry that has steadily added jobs through even the worst recessions. ... Health

System awaiting OK on its own sale. Robert Weisman, Boston Globe, August 28, 2010 Caritas Christi Health Care, the Boston hospital system that is awaiting state approval of its agreement to be purchased by a New York buyout firm, wants to move forward with an acquisition of its own - the first of what could be many deals under a new owner. Reaching across state lines, Caritas asked a Rhode Island judge yesterday to allow it to buy Landmark Medical Center, a 214-bed community hospital in Woonsocket, RI, for an undisclosed sum. Caritas, a chain of six Catholic hospitals in eastern Massachusetts, hopes to use the financial muscle of its proposed acquirer ... Caritas