Mercy Medical Center nurses picket in Springfield

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) – Mercy Medical Center nurses were outside holding an informational picketing on Thursday.

Mercy Medical Center nurses part of the Massachusetts Nurses Association were across the street from the hospital informational picketing for a few causes. The association is in the middle of contract negotiations with Trinity Health and is looking to make up for lost wages, fix what they describe as a problem with sick time, fix facility problems, and more.

The MNA told 22News that some employees have seen a 70% decrease in sick time.

Mercy MNA Bargaining Group Co-chair Jaime Hyatt told 22News, “Patient care is why we do this job. We came into nursing to be caregivers to the community that’s a Community hospital that’s what we wanted to do and we suffered under this lean staffing and we can’t get patients the care that we need.”

Hyatt said in the ICU, there is a state law mandating a one-to-one ratio unless a nurse decides they can take on another. He said at Mercy, some ICU nurses are being given three patients to care for, not only making it more difficult for staffing but also less attention to each patient.

Trinity Health of New England told 22News, that they are currently in active contract negotiations with the MNA and are committed to continuing the discussions in good faith.

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