We will share information about contract negotiations and other issues on this page. Please talk to your colleagues about important union topics and connect with your MNA representatives. The strength of our union is based on these conversations and how well we work together to achieve our goals.
- Send an email about non-urgent issues to slhunion@gmail.com. Emails are checked weekly.
- You can find the hospital’s staffing grids and additional information about our staffing contract language at: www.massnurses.org/StLukesGrids.
- File an unsafe staffing report: https://action.massnurses.org/forms/unsafe-staffing.
>>> St. Luke’s MNA Book of Proposals <<<
- MNA Bargaining Committee
Terri deMedeiros, Co-Chair, ED
Kim Beaulieu, Co-Chair, Multi-Site Float
Victoria Rogers, Secretary, ED
Jane Mulvey, Grievance Chair, Crapo
Aisha Amado, CLC Delegate, Crapo
Jessica Kruger, Membership Coordinator, ED
Vanessa Branco, Young Worker Delegate, FCU
Cheryl Woolson, Committee, OR
Meg Pilato, Committee, Nuc Med
Kate Duff, Committee, Endo
Helena McClafferty, Committee, ASU
Jeff Almeida, Committee, OR
Kelsey Houlihan, Committee, FCU
Brooke Baptiste, Committee, ASU
Jessica Mills, Committee, ASU
Kelsey McGinnis, Committee, PACU
Megan Oliver, Committee, OR
Mariann Monteiro, Committee, Pedi
Kristen Frazier, Committee, Bourne
Barbara Webster, Committee, Knowles
Rob Hooper, Committee, ED
Alisa Allison, Committee – Multi-site Float
MNA Rep: Wendy McGill,
WMcGill@mnarn.org; 781-830-5787
Negotiation Updates
April 14, 2025
MNA Nurses Seeking to Improve RN Scheduling and Planned Time Off Without Upsetting What Works Currently
On Monday, we had productive discussions with management about our proposals on work schedules and planned time off. We were concerned about management’s approach to these issues based on their counter proposals. Management also asked us questions about our FCU staffing proposal as they consider how to respond.
Work Schedules
Our goal is to simplify our current scheduling language without undermining the way scheduling works well in some units. Management gave us a counter proposal that took away nurses’ ability to self-schedule and gave managers complete discretion. Their proposal would only allow nurses to request up to three days off in a six-week period, with no guarantee of receiving them.
We discussed ways to ensure nurses can continue to self-schedule by expressing preference for work days. Nurses should also not be moved off their scheduled days and be displaced by per diems, travelers or MTMs. If a conflict arises about which permanent nurses should be scheduled on a particular day, that should be resolved by seniority. Some units are having more scheduling problems than others, such as the FCU. Addressing the FCU’s work schedules issues is directly connected to our proposal to create separate FCU patient care areas.
FCU Staffing
Management told us last session they were considering our FCU staffing proposal. Today they asked us a few questions about the proposal. Management asked how they would address the potential problem of too many nurses selecting one patient care area under our proposal. That would be resolved by seniority. We also said many nurses want an OB float pool. Nurses in that pool would be trained and competent in multiple areas, be eligible for the float pool differential.
Planned Time Off
Based on the 2025-2026 vacation planner, most hospital units are already providing equal time off availability across all weeks, including vacation weeks. This should apply equally to all units. We reiterated the main points of our proposal:
- The weekly allocation of time off should allow nurses to use their ETO accrual based on their guaranteed vacation picks, i.e. 0-4 years of service (3 weeks), 4-18 (4 weeks), 18+ (5 weeks).
- Allocate time off equally during all non-prime time weeks, including the three holiday vacation weeks.
- Address 12-hour shift nurses being denied time off because hours are not being properly distributed per shift.
- Shorten the prime-time period.
Tentative Agreements Reached
Tuition/Certification Reimbursement: We reached an agreement on management’s proposal to simplify tuition reimbursement to a nurse receiving up to $2,500 per calendar year (or $1,500 for part-time) and add certifications to this section of our contract.
Seniority: We agreed to management’s proposal to make minor updates to our existing seniority language.
March 25, 2025
Management Makes Initial Wage Proposal:
– Matches Tobey RN Wage Scale But St. Luke’s Would Continue to be the Largest Hospital in the Region with Among the Lowest Paid Nurses
– Management Falls Short on Differentials, Medical and Dental Insurance and Staffing
St. Luke’s is the largest hospital in the Southcoast, Cape and Islands. It is a Level II trauma center. We are also a regional maternity center serving patients whose local hospitals have closed their maternity units. This is not reflected in management’s wage proposal. Their proposal moves St. Luke’s nurses to the current Tobey scale. This would reduce our steps to 19 so nurses get to the top faster and be based on licensure year, as we have proposed. It is a meaningful initial proposal, but fails to bring St. Luke’s nurses where we need to be. Look on the second/back page of this update for a comparison of our proposed wage scale, St. Luke’s management’s proposed scale, and what BI Plymouth recently proposed to MNA nurses.
Our top rate right now is $67.58. Management proposed a new top rate of $70.01. Our proposal would bring us to $81.79. Other hospitals in the region are paying their nurses more while negotiating even higher pay rates. Right now, Brockton’s top rate is $73.94 and they are back in negotiations. Cape Cod’s top rate is $71.20. Plymouth’s is $70.85 and management there recently proposed wages that would top out at $76.86. Plymouth wages will surely end up even higher since nurses there have picketed and taken a strike authorization vote.
Management’s proposal is now the minimum they will offer. They emphasized that it was their first proposal on wages, meaning they have room to improve. We identified additional areas in which their proposal was inadequate:
- No change in the current on-call rate. We have proposed increasing on-call from $5 an hour to the MA minimum wage.
- Preceptor differential: Management proposed an increase from $1.75 an hour to $2.25. We have proposed $5 an hour.
- Charge differential: Management proposed an increase from $2 an hour to $3. We have proposed $5 an hour.
- Evening differential: Management proposed an increase from $2.80 an hour to $2.90. We have proposed $5 an hour.
- Management ignored all of our other differential increase proposals.
- No improvement in medical and dental insurance. They would maintain the status of those plans for two years.
- Rejected all of our staffing proposals except management said they are considering our FCU separate patient care area proposal.
Wages must be competitive, appropriately compensating St. Luke’s nurses for the care we provide our communities.
St. Luke’s management proposed wage scale:
BI Plymouth management proposed wage scale:
MNA SLH proposed wage scale:
March 14, 2025
Nurses Work Hard to Earn Time Off, Management Tells Us: Maybe We’ll Let You Use It
Management tries to spin us that having combined ETO is better than separate sick and vacation time. We can use the ETO we don’t need for sick time on vacations, they say. We can cash out unused time to avoid losing ETO when we hit max, they say.
This is false advertising. In reality, nurses are reprimanded for using too much sick time, restricted during holiday weeks and a lengthy prime time period, and limited in how much ETO we can cash out. Nurses lose the ability to use hard-earned ETO and take time away from work because of management’s many restrictions.
With our vacation proposal, the goal is to make sure nurses have maximum access to taking their accrued time off. A counter proposal management gave us on Friday does not fully address our concerns.
- Our proposal allocates time off equally during all non-prime time weeks, including the three holiday vacation weeks (Christmas, President’s Day, and Patriot’s Day), not based on how individual managers decide to allocate time. Currently, managers have been restricting vacation to only one nurse per department during holiday weeks (even beyond the 3 listed in our contract). Management’s proposal would allow managers to continue restricting time off during the three holiday vacation weeks. Some managers provide equal time off during holiday vacation weeks, but this should be done fairly for all nurses.
- Our proposal enables nurses to get time off that is available after the annual vacation planner deadline has passed. Whatever time is left over would be available for nurses to select throughout the year. Management would leave those post-planner vacation requests completely up to the discretion of managers.
- Our proposal shortens the prime-time period from the second Sunday in May to the third Saturday in September to Memorial Day through Labor Day. Nurses should be guaranteed a week off during the actual peak vacation season. Management has refused to shorten prime time.
It was a meaningful counter proposal, but did not completely meet our needs.
On Friday, we also gave management a counter proposal and tuition reimbursement and certifications. We agree with management’s proposal that tuition and certification should be combined within a total allowance of up to $2,500 annually, but suggested other revisions to their proposal.
March 6, 2025
MNA Nurses Seeking Better Work-Life Balance with our Vacation Planner Proposal
On Thursday, we had a discussion with management about our vacation planner proposal. Our goal is a transparent system that allows for fair and equitable distribution of time off. The hospital needs to make sure nurses can use the ETO allotted to them, take time off and have a work-life balance. In some units, like the ED and OR, the vacation scheduling system is working well. In others, including the FCU and Crapo, it is a mess.
There should be a weekly allocation of time off calculated to ensure that all nurses can use all their time. That calculation should be based on fully staffed units.
- We have proposed that time off be allocated equally during all non-prime time weeks, including the three holiday vacation weeks, not based on how individual managers decide to allocate time.
- We are also seeking to address a problem in which 12-hour shift nurses have been denied time off for part of their shift because hours are not being properly distributed per shift.
Management said they would take our feedback and consider how to respond to our proposal. There was also a discussion about planned time during the three vacation weeks (Christmas, Presidents’ Day, and Patriots Day).
ED Electronic Beds Issue
As part of our ED surge incentive agreement, management said they would institute a better system for monitoring patients in hallway beds. This week ED staff experienced a sudden change in how beds are designated that disrupted patient care safety. We addressed with management their lack of communication about the change. They said they are listening to our feedback. MNA ED nurse leaders will be doing a walk-through with management on Friday.
Join us for negotiations on March 14 from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. in Library Conference Room 2 Bright Spot.
We are stronger together!
February 24, 2025
We Strongly Reject Management Work Schedules Proposal that Would Throw Nurses’ Lives into Disarray
We have proposed giving nurses more choice over their schedules. Management wants to take away rights we have in our current contract. They would make it harder for nurses to maintain a work-life balance. Management’s proposal would:
- Take away self scheduling and give manager’s complete discretion. All scheduling would be based on requests that may or may not be honored.
- Continue to require nurses to work six Mondays and Fridays per schedule (or Thursdays and Sundays for night shift nurses). Of those six days, management’s proposal would require nurses to work at least two Mondays and two Fridays (or two Thursdays and two Sundays).
- Only allow nurses to request up to 3 days off in a six-week period, with no guarantee of receiving them.
Management’s proposal would be a huge disincentive for nurses to stay or move to permanent status. Work-life balance and nurses having control over their schedules is a fundamental right of any MNA contract. We will not back down over this issue. Our proposal includes:
- The order of priority for scheduling would be: Permanent nurses, per diem nurses, and then temporary nurses like MTMs and travelers.
- Scheduling requests would be granted by bargaining unit seniority.
- The hospital would post needs, and all nurses could sign up for straight time extra shifts on a rotating basis.
- We have similar language at Tobey, ensuring nurses have the greatest rights and preferences over their work schedules.
On Monday, management rejected our MTM and traveler limitation proposal, and gave us counters on holidays and military leave. We reached a tentative agreement on military leave, a management proposal about reimbursing nurses for time spent in military reserve training.
A Show of Power: ED Nurses Secure Incentive Agreement
The ED has been overwhelmed by a surge of patients. Despite requests that management address the problem and offer incentive pay, the hospital had failed to improve ED staffing. To get management to act, we used a key source of our strength: Nurse unity.
ED nurses packed a recent labor management meeting, sharing harrowing stories. ED patients have been put at risk by the hospital’s inaction. Our efforts pushed management to agree to an incentive program lasting through April 12. Nurses working extra or overtime shifts in the ED will receive an additional $30 per hour. Management also agreed to add more upstaff to address the surge. Unity is power!
Jan. 21, 2025
Jan. 8, 2025
MNA Proposal Seeks Equitable Planned Time Off
On January 8, we met for our 4th bargaining session. Management gave us proposals on per diems and seniority. Below are our proposal summaries.
Planned Time Off: We proposed that time off be allocated equally during all non-prime time weeks, including holiday weeks. This allocation should be based on fully staffed units, not on immediate staffing problems or how individual managers decide to allocate time. We are also seeking to address a problem in which 12-hour nurses have been denied time off for part of their shift because hours are not being properly distributed per shift.
In addition, we are proposing to shorten the prime time period. Right now, prime time is the second Sunday in May to the third Saturday in September. Our proposal would reduce it to Memorial Day through Labor Day. Nurses should be guaranteed a week off during the actual peak vacation season.
Schedules: Our proposal would simplify our scheduling language to ensure full- and part-time nurses are not displaced by per diems, MTMs or travelers and that per diems are not displaced by MTMs or travelers.
Daylight Savings: This proposal places current practice into our contract. Nurses receive 1.5x pay for the extra hour worked during fall back and are paid their full shift during spring forward.
New Hire Orientation: We proposed to adjust our current contract language to better match current practice.
FCU On-Call Update
We had an excellent turnout of FCU nurses at last labor management meeting to discuss mandatory on-call. As we described in a previous bulletin, FCU should not have mandatory on-call because it is a 24/7 service. Nurses shared personal experiences about how the hospital is demoralizing them with its use of on-call. We continue to demand management address this issue and have made a proposal to make on-call voluntary in the FCU.
Dec. 4, 2024
MNA Committee Makes On-Call and Sleep Time Proposals
Join us for Our Next Bargaining Session January 8
We are working to put the remainder of our proposals on the table. Today we delved into addressing problems with the hospital’s on-call system and making improvements to sleep time. We also worked on a comprehensive ETO proposal focused on enhancing time off availability and scheduling. If you have any ideas or questions about any of the topics we bring up in bargaining, please reach out to a member of our bargaining committee.
On-Call
Right now, the hospital is often not paying nurses for times when they have to answer their on-call pager. For example, if a nurse’s on-call shift starts at 7 p.m., the hospital is paging them at 6:30 to tell them to come in at 7 without paying them until 7. This is not appropriate and must be fixed in our contract and Kronos. We also proposed that nurses on call cannot be called in before the start of their on-call shift.
In addition, we proposed that FCU not be subject to on-call because it is a 24/7 service and that weeknight on-call hours for the ASU and PACU be 11 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. to reflect staffed hours. We will also propose an increase in the on-call differential.
Sleep Time
Our current sleep time contract language says that a nurse on-call who is called in between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. and is scheduled to work the immediately following shift that begins no later than 11 a.m. is eligible for two hours release time. Our proposal would also make the release time pay equal to the number of hours worked between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m., but you would receive no less than two hours of paid sleep time. I.E., if you are called in and work 4 hours, you would receive 4 hours of paid sleep time.
Management Proposals, Responses, and Tentative Agreements
- Management proposed updates on tuition reimbursement, and professional certification and recertification reimbursement.
- The hospital wants to be able to release nurses in two-hour increments in addition to the current four-hour increments. They also want to adjust the order in which nurses may be released depending on their status. We have a different perspective on release and will be responding.
- Management made a proposal regarding imposing new requirements on nurses about communicating about their protected leaves or risk the leaves converting to unprotected.
- They gave initial responses to our proposals on vacancies and uniforms and are reviewing our preceptor proposal.
- We reached agreements on MNA proposals regarding contact hours and annual competencies that will take effect when our full contract is settled and ratified.
Nov. 21, 2024
Initial Proposals Exchanged in 2nd Bargaining Session
During our second negotiation session, our first step was finalizing ground rules. This is an agreement between both sides on how bargaining will proceed. For example, our rules speak to having reasonable periods for caucus times between the parties seeing each other at the table. They also include rules about meeting space, the release of MNA committee members, and giving notice before going to the media, among others.
After signing off on ground rules, management put forward proposals related to restricted call, assault pay, and bereavement. We will be evaluating their proposals.
Our initial set of proposals to management included contract language addressing re-assignment and release, reduction in hours, vacancies, attire and appearance, preceptorship, bereavement, contact hours, and making sure required competencies are offered at nurses’ home site. On preceptorship, we made the point that there are many more novice nurses at St. Luke’s requiring training from more experienced nurses. We are seeking greater compensation for nurses who precept, especially in specialty areas, to make sure nurses are incentivized to precept and newer nurses get the training and support they need.
We also spent time developing new proposals. A lot of our focus during caucus was on creating a proposal to address the problems with on-call in FCU. Management is using on-call inappropriately. FCU nurses are almost always called in when they are on call – evidence that this is just a way management is staffing the hospital without hiring more permanent nurses. FCU is a 24/7 service and should not even have on-call. The hospital should staff appropriately instead of relying on this dissatisfying approach. In addition, management is making nurses go into the FCU at 7 a.m. to physically pick their on-call hours on a first-come-first-serve basis. This has created conflict among nurses and incredible frustration.
We believe changing on-call to voluntary in the FCU could address this issue. This would allow nurses to pick up on-call if they want to and receive overtime. We will update you when we present additional proposals.
Tentative Agreements Reached
We reached a tentative agreement (TA) on management’s restricted call proposal to change the hourly rate from $14.25 to match MA minimum wage, as well as a TA on bereavement that now includes the parent and grandparent of nurse’s children and step-siblings. TA’s do not take effect until our full contract is ratified.