[Antiracism] [Workers' Rights] WRB asks Baystate to abandon union-busting

[WMass Jobs With Justice]

WORKERS' RIGHTS BOARD ISSUES BAYSTATE FRANKLIN MEDICAL CENTER REPORT

 

BOARD ASKS "DOES BAYSTATE WANT TO BE A LEADER IN DELIVERING HEALTH CARE? OR
A LEADER IN UNION-BUSTING?"

 

On Thursday July 10, at First Congregational Church in Greenfield, a panel
of the Western Massachusetts Jobs with Justice Workers' Rights Board took
testimony from Registered Nurses who are members of the Massachusetts Nurses
Association at Baystate Franklin Medical Center in Greenfield.  The Board's
report on collective bargaining there is highly critical of BFMC's contract
proposals and underlying motivation.  A copy of the report is available upon
request.

 

The report concludes:

 

Does Baystate want to be a leader in delivering health care?  Or a leader in
union-busting?

 

The search for a solution to the present tension and malaise is at hand.
Management needs to look no further than its fateful decision to divide and
oppress until the day the hospital can declare itself to be  "union-free",
which, according to the testimony we heard, would equate to rights-free.

 

We call upon BFMC to withdraw its proposals regarding shift cancellation,
discipline for sick leave, and bulletin boards, grant a decent pay raise
retroactive to January 1, enter into contract language to protect nurses'
safety from patient violence, settle this contract with all deliberate
speed, and give up its goal, throughout Baystate Health, of operating
"union-free."

 

Across the U.S., Workers' Rights Boards act as "the conscience of the
community" regarding labor relations, exposing employers' misconduct and
also helping workers form unions and reach collective bargaining contracts.
There is more information at http://www.jwj.org/projects/wrb.html.

 

The Western Mass. Jobs with Justice Workers' Rights Board consists of two
dozen "public citizens" in Western Massachusetts.  The following were the
July 10 panel: 

 

Anne Awad, President/CEO, Caring Health Center Inc (Springfield); Health
Systems Consultant; Amherst Select Person

 

Mary Lavo Ford, Non-profit Manager; former Outreach Director, Community
Health Center of Franklin County; former Mayor of Northampton

 

Ward Morehouse, co-founder, Program on Corporations, Law, and Democracy;
Shays2: WMass Committee on Corporations and Democracy

 

Rev. Armand Proulx, Second Congregational Church of Greenfield

 

Al Siano, Greenfield City Councilor

 

Miryam Ehrlich Williamson, Medical Writer; former Warwick Select Board
member 

 

The Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA) has been bargaining a new
contract at Baystate Franklin Medical Center (BFMC) since October 2007.  The
employer, Baystate Health in Springfield, is showing an anti-union animus at
the bargaining table.  It hired Howard Bloom from the well-known
union-busting law firm, Jackson Lewis (http://www.jacksonlewis.com/).  More
information at
http://www.americanrightsatwork.org/the-anti-union-network/for-profit-union-
busters/jackson-lewis-20071018-313-254.html. 

 

Founded in 1987, Jobs with Justice's mission is to improve working people's
standard of living, fight for job security, and protect workers' right to
organize.  We believe workers' rights are human rights and to be successful,
we have to be part of a larger campaign for economic and social justice. 

 

To that end, "J with J" has created a national coalition and a network of
local coalitions that connect labor, community, student, and faith-based
organizations and activists on workplace and community social justice
campaigns.  Western Mass JwJ - founded June 5, 1993 - is now a coalition of
almost 60 organizations. 

 

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[Workers' Rights] posts opportunities for you to learn about and show
solidarity with workplace and working class struggles. And these events are
opportunities for JwJ members to fulfill their pledge:
<http://www.jwj.org/pledge.html> "I'll be there for workers' rights at least
five times a year!" This is the core mission of Jobs with Justice
(www.jwj.org <http://www.jwj.org/> ), affirming that workers' rights are
human rights. To subscribe, send an email to wmjwj at wmjwj.org with a Subject
of "Subscribe Worker's Rights".



Western Mass Jobs with Justice
640 Page Blvd #101
Springfield MA 01104
(413) 827-0301 

 

 

 

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