BFMC Nurses Vote NO on Management’s ‘Best and Final’

VOTE INFORMATION

  • Conference Room B Baystate Franklin
  • Wednesday 6/10/2026- 6am until 8pm

FAQ on the NO Vote, Baystate’s “Best and Final,” Our Proposals and Next Steps

Baystate’s “Best and Final” Contract Offer

Watch the Instagram videos at the end of the below letter to hear directly from your BFMC nurse leaders.

Dear BFMC Co-Workers,

BFMC Management, in an unusually hostile move, passed us a “last best and final offer”. It is an offensive power play by a hostile management.

We deserve better — not just in the content of their take-it-or-leave-it non-proposal, but also better than the attitude management seems to have that they need to beat the hospital staff and that the staff must lose. It was a particular shame that they acted this way when we were making progress at the table.

And so, we are doing something that many unions do: We are putting their proposal to a vote of all our BFMC members.

Your 13-member bargaining committee unanimously and strongly recommends a “NO” vote.

In doing so, we will send a message that we deserve to be treated better than this, and that they should return to the table and get the negotiations done with respect.

Through our collective power, we have already won important improvements in our contract and pushed management to move on key issues. We need more progress from Baystate on staffing, health insurance, and compensation to reach an agreement. The gains we have won so far cannot be taken away if bargaining continues. What is on the table now will improve if we stay united.

They have asked us for an answer. A Yes means we are OK with being treated this way. A No means we are not, and that we will stick up for one another as we always have, and that we want management to return to the table and get this done with dignity and respect.

We will do voting in person only at the hospital. It is very important that you take the time to come in and vote!

Conference Room B Baystate Franklin

Wednesday 6/10/2026- 6am until 8pm

We are going to continue to stick up for one another and for our patients, and we are going to make this the best hospital it can be for our community!

In Solidarity,

Marissa Potter, Co-Chairperson, OB; Suzanne Love, Co-Chairperson, ED; Laura Heisig, Secretary, OR; Amy Moore, Float Pool; Sam Keith, ED; Bridget Licata, ED; Kay Bruffee, MHU; Caroline Miklovisch, OB; Nicole Schneider, Med Surge/Spokes; Sara Guidaboni, Med Surge/Spokes; Staci Miner, Case Management; Rodica Balan, PACU; Lisa Stevens, ICU

INFO about management’s “Last Best and Final” edict:

What is Baystate’s “best and final” offer? Baystate returned on May 27 with largely the same inadequate package proposal as they offered the last 3 sessions.

Management’s proposal:

  1. Inadequate staffing protections
    1. Not enough nurses in the ED to cover an additional 15 +/- hallway beds
    2. Cuts one tech position in the ED
    3. Cuts to admission nurse hours in the MHU
    4. Not enough support staff for the spokes
    5. No language that says that the new “staffing summits” would not diminish the grid
  2. Uncompetitive wages for a long-term contract (by the time we get to the end of this contract we’ll be back at the same place we are now – underpaid, and the lowest paid union nurses in Western Mass !)
  3. No protection against rising health insurance costs. As healthcare providers we deserve to have affordable healthcare and make sure our wages aren’t undercut, by rising healthcare costs.
  4. No shift differential if you pick up an evening or night shift unless that’s your regularly scheduled shift
  5. No retroactive pay back to the beginning of 2026 (just a one-time bonus shortchanging us six months of work)
    1. Instead of retro, Baystate is offering a bonus that falls far short of what nurses deserve. WHAT WE DESERVE is Retro pay. Retro pay would equal approximately $2,484 for a 36-hour nurse and $1,656 for a 24-hour nurse. Management’s bonus is $1200 short of retro for a full-time nurse and even more for those of us who picked up extra or overtime. Vote NO