Nurses at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Plymouth, locked in difficult contract negotiations with management, are set to take a strike authorization vote next week.
More than 400 nurses will vote Thursday, March 20, on whether to authorize a strike. They plan to picket in front of the Plymouth Public Library on South Street from 3 to 5 p.m. that day.
A “yes” vote would permit the nurses’ bargaining committee to schedule a three-day strike for an undetermined date. The union would be required to give the hospital 10 days’ notice before striking.
“We never want to go on strike,” said Liz Taylor, co-chair of the nurses’ bargaining unit at BID-Plymouth.
“My hope is we can come out of this with a fantastic contract that works for the nurses and gives us everything we need in terms of staffing to take care of our patients and wages and benefits that help keep nurses here,” she said.
The Massachusetts Nurses Association, which represents the hospital’s 420 nurses, says heavy patient workloads are compromising the care the nurses can provide their patients.
The nurses have been in negotiations for a new contract since October 3, MNA spokesman David Schildmeier wrote in a news release. Their contract, which was set to expire in December, has been extended to March 31.
To make up for decreased staffing, the union argues, the hospital has required nurses to float among units – even if a nurse is not trained to care for patients in those units – and has mandated overtime, “forcing exhausted nurses to work extra hours to compensate for the lack of staff,” said Schildmeier.
He said the effect on patients is reflected in “Objection to Unsafe Staffing Reports,” reports filed by nurses when they feel conditions threaten the health and safety of patients.
In February, the Independent reported that BID-Plymouth nurses filed 85 unsafe-staffing reports in January alone —compared with the 62 they filed in all of 2024.
The nurses are also fighting to keep a favored health insurance plan that they say the hospital wants to eliminate. The new plan would increase the cost of family premiums by nearly $3,000 per year, they said.
They are also looking for a “competitive wage increase, that will allow the hospital to recruit the nurses needed to provide appropriate care,” wrote Schildmeier.
The nurses are now paid $50 an hour, on average, with those at top scale earning $70.85. Their wages, the union says, are lower than those paid at other hospitals in the region.
Donna Doherty, RN, senior vice president of patient care services and chief nursing officer, said the hospital is “eager to reach resolution” with the nurses, whose contributions to patient care are “extraordinary.”
In an emailed statement, she said the hospital “recognizes that retaining and recruiting outstanding nurses requires competitive wages – and from the outset of our negotiations, we have proposed rates that are among the highest in the region.”
Doherty acknowledged that the hospital’s “analysis of staffing differs from the MNA,” but said it is “taking every step to assure appropriate staffing is in place to support our patients, including providing additional incentive compensation for our current patient care teams.”
The hospital has been providing extra pay for nurses who work extra hours. Union leaders said that incentive pay plan is scheduled to end on March 31.
The nurses are asking family, friends, labor allies, and others to join them on the picket line.
“We would love the public to join us and put pressure on the hospital to listen to us,” said Taylor.
“It’s our job to take care of our community and we love that job,” she added. “We want them to know we hear them when they say the hospital is short staffed and they don’t feel they’re getting the care they deserve or want. “
Robert Doughlin, a union leader and nurse who has worked at BID-Plymouth for more than 20 years, said nurses want the public to “understand their health and safety, if not their very lives, may depend on the successful outcome of this (bargaining) process.”
Andrea Estes can be reached at andrea@plymouthindependent.org.