NORTH PROVIDENCE -- Nurses at Our Lady of Fatima Hospital have voted overwhelmingly to issue a 10-day strike notice to the hospital unless it agrees to what they say are safe staffing levels, better health benefits and higher wages.
The strike would be the first ever at Fatima, which has one of the three busiest emergency departments in the state, said R. Otis Brown, a hospital spokesman. Emergency patients are taken to another nearby hospital when the closest is full; a strike at Fatima would affect services at hospitals across the state.
Of the 209 nurses who voted on Wednesday, only 9 voted against issuing the notice to Fatima.
The two sides have been negotiating since May 16 for a new contract, which would take effect after the current one expires at the end of the month.
Like most hospitals, Fatima is experiencing "unprecedented financial pressures," mostly stemming from inadequate reimbursement and skyrocketing insurance costs from Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island, Brown said.
The nurses at Fatima say they are sympathetic to the hospital's financial troubles, but say the difficulties at their hospital are not unique, said Christopher Callaci, the chief negotiator for the union.
"There are a number of hospitals like Fatima that are in the red," Callaci said. "But the difference is that those places have made a priority in investing in the folks who are providing the care."
The hospital rejected the union's proposed minimum staffing levels, saying the cost was too high but offering no counterproposal, Callaci said. The nurses say the hospital's plan would compromise the quality of care at Fatima, he said.
The hospital says its levels are approved by two licensing boards and are therefore acceptable, Brown said.
The union wants to keep its base health insurance plan, HealthMate Coast to Coast; the nurses say the hospital's proposed replacement, Blue CHiP, is "much poorer," Callaci said. Callaci said nurses at most other hospitals use Coast to Coast as their base plan.
Brown said the hospital needs the union's help to alleviate the pressures imposed by the rising cost of health insurance.
The union is also asking for the hospital to improve what Callaci called a "grossly inadequate wage offer."
The union could issue its 10-day strike notice as early as Monday, the first of two dates set for negotiating sessions.
Brown said the hospital remains hopeful that it can reach an agreement with the union at one of those sessions.
"The financial pressures are significant, and we need the cooperation and support of the union to address them," he said.
Callaci said he had "no idea what Monday will bring," saying the hospital controls its own destiny: If the hospital cooperates with the union, the strike notice could become moot, he said.
"We're willing to work with you within the tight budget, but if you're going to balance your budget on the backs of the people who provide the direct patient care, we're going to resist that," Callaci said.
The Local 5110 at Fatima is an affiliate of the United Nations & Allied Professionals, which represents some 4,000 health-care workers in Rhode Island, Connecticut and Vermont. About 300 nurses work at Fatima, Callaci said.
The Fatima emergency room treated about 34,000 patients in the last fiscal year, Brown said. In the same time period, about 11,000 patients were admitted, he said.
