Lynn hospital employees rally; Workers protest labor practices at NSMC

LYNN – Hundreds of employees staged a rally Wednesday against North Shore Medical Center (NSMC) to show disapproval of what they consider to be meager wages and allegedly low quality of heath care.The workers gathered at the First Church of Christ at 678 Lynnfield St. in the vicinity of the hospital, which is operated by Partners HealthCare System.Last year a group of 436 service workers ? mostly housekeeping staff, certified nursing assistants and dietary department employees n voted to join Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1199 as part of a labor organizing movement in metropolitan Boston. Those unionized employees have since begun negotiating their first-ever contract.A different contract with Local 1199, which covers 370 registered nurses, professional and technical employees and has been in place since the late 1980s, expired June 2. Re-negotiations have been in progress.The union local received support from community groups such as Mass Senior Action, Neighbor to Neighbor, the Lynn Health Task Force, the Highlands Coalition and the North Shore Labor Council.”We just want to be paid fairly. I live in Lynn and spend my paycheck in Lynn, but we’re paid very poorly at the hospital,” said Christina Tejada, a Local 1199 member who works in emergency reception at Union Hospital, “Like many of my co-workers, I qualify for MassHealth, because of my income, and I can’t afford the hospital health plan. We simply want to provide quality patient care and be able to afford the services at our own hospital.”Leslie Greenberg, among the founders of the Lynn Health Task Force and a community health care advocate, said wage data provided by Union Hospital shows that 35 percent of its service employees earn less than the Boston living wage standard of $12.62.”Some workers earn less than $10 per hour while working in the 147-bed acute-care facility, which is operated by the state’s richest hospital network,” she said, noting that public filings indicate Partners HealthCare System has more than $5.2 billion in reserves.”The hospital is a big employer in the city of Lynn but by paying such low wages they are not helping the community,” said SEIU Local 1199 spokesman Jeff Hall.NSMC spokesman Kevin Ronningen said the medical center is currently in contract negotiations with 1199 SEIU for the first collective bargaining agreement with the union’s non-professional unit at Union Hospital.”At this point, North Shore Medical Center has made a very reasonable wage offer, consistent with similar salaries on the North Shore,” he said. “In addition to adjusting the minimum pay rate for each job classification, NSMC has also offered competitive pay increases in each year of the contract.”Ronningen said the medical center “will continue to negotiate in good faith with SEIU to reach a settlement that honors our staff and reflects today’s challenging health care environment.”