PAWTUCKET -- Pulling back from the brink of what would have been the first walkout by hospital workers in the state in eight years, nurses at Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island voted not to strike yesterday.

The vote, cast by nurses and other unionized hospital staff during 12 hours of balloting, fell far short of the 80 percent "super majority" that the union set as the threshold for a walkout.

The actual count was 159 in favor of striking and 158 against.

It eliminated the threat of the walkout that the union made in a strike notice issued 10 days ago, essentially allowing operations at Memorial Hospital to return to normal.

Operations at the 294-bed community hospital had been cut back in anticipation of the possible strike.

Although the emergency room was kept open, the number of patients in medical and surgical beds in the hospital were cut 40 percent so the work normally done by nurses could be performed by doctors, nurse managers and other nonunion personnel.

By voting not to authorize a walkout, members of the United Nurses & Allied Professionals, Local 5082, in effect agreed to accept what the hospital described as its final offer.

The final offer doesn't contain the language that union negotiators sought to blunt the impact of mandatory overtime, the practice of requiring nurses to remain on duty past the end of their shifts.

But it does, union officials said, contain an important concession: Raises for the approximately 30 hospital employees whose anniversary dates have fallen during the four-week period that has elapsed since the union's last contract expired.

Union field representatives Chris Callaci said the concession was made in the final hour of the 12 1/2-hour mediation session that ended at 5:30 a.m. yesterday at the Comfort Inn.

He said the concession came despite a statement by Hospital President Francis R. Dietz that, the longer contract talks dragged on, the larger the number of unionized employees who would miss out on raises pegged to the anniversary of their date of hire.

"We said, 'Look, there's not going to be an agreement without that,' " Callaci said. "They had to withdraw that, although their public position is that their final offer is unchanged."

Nurses make up 76 percent of the 373-member local, which also includes pharmacists, medical technologists, physical and occupational therapists and social workers.

Although nurses who voted yesterday spoke strongly about the mandatory overtime issue, which affects them disproportionately, they said they were worried about their patients and sensitive to the concerns of other Local 5082 members, who fretted about losing wages and health coverage during the strike.

"We're sympathetic. That's because we're nurses," Tom Duffy, of Pawtucket, said.

The hospital's final offer allows Memorial to continue imposing mandatory overtime, despite allegations by the union that the practice is widespread and the effect is to stress-out nurses with high-pressure jobs.

In public statements last week, the hospital claimed the extent to which it was assigning mandatory overtime was being exaggerated: "169 out of the 284 nurses at Memorial Hospital have not worked mandatory overtime at all this year -- not even a minute," the hospital said.

"Twenty-four percent of nurses have worked mandatory overtime only once this year."

But union members said it isn't unusual for nurses to volunteer to work an extra shift when it becomes clear that a coworker with children or a second job will be forced to work overtime if nobody steps forward.

Nancy Fisher, a nurse in Memorial's outpatient cancer center, said the hospital typically counts that as voluntary overtime, when in fact people are being forced to work extra hours to prevent mandatory overtime from being imposed on coworkers: "That's why the numbers [hospital officials] were presenting are artificially low.".

Fisher said she was disappointed no progress was made on the mandatory overtime issue. "It would be nice if Memorial were in the forefront, saying we've got to address this problem. Eventually, it's going to be legislated. So why not be the leader?"

Callaci said the fight isn't over. "We're going to make Dietz . . . the poster child for mandatory overtime," he promised.

Memorial Hospital is part of the Hospital Association of Rhode Island, an industry group that last spring lobbied against a bill that would have limited mandatory overtime.

John J. Tassoni Jr., D-Smithfield and North Smithfield, said that when he got hospital leaders together this year, they indicated that to the extent mandatory overtime is an issue, it could be dealt with through the collective bargaining process.

"Well, here we are at the collective bargaining process, and a solution has been proposed by the union that would be revenue neutral for the hospital, by merely encouraging a fresh nurse to come in by paying that nurse time and a half, the same rate that is already being paid for the nurse required to work overtime," Tassoni said in a statement.

"But the hospital has been unreasonable, and closed the door on negotiations."

A bill limiting mandatory overtime passed the House unanimously during the last day of the legislative session.

But the bill, sponsored by Rep. Raymond E. Gallison Jr., D-Bristol, arrived in the Senate too late for legislators to act on, Tassoni said. He promised that, if reelected, he would pre-file a mandatory overtime bill in November and "work tirelessly" in the next legislative session to ensure it becomes law.

jcastell@projo.com / (401) 277-7371