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

On Thursday July 10, 2008, 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 at http://wmjwj.org/sites/wmjwj.org/files/BFMC%20WRB.pdf.

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. More information at American Rights at Work.

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.