Tufts Medical Center in Boston locks out 1,200 nurses after one-day strike
By
John Marion
14 July 2017
At 7:00 a.m. on Thursday the Tufts Medical Center in Boston locked out some 1,200 nurses after they conducted a one-day strike Wednesday. Tufts University police stood at the entrances to the hospital, refusing to allow the nurses in even though they were seeking to return to work.
Passing public transit bus drivers honked their horns in support of the nurses who picketed outside, and nurses from the Mass General, Brigham and Women’s, and Newton-Wellesly Hospitals—all part of the larger Partners Healthcare organization—turned out in support. Last summer nearly 2,350 Brigham and Women’s nurses voted to approve a walkout, but the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA) brokered a deal with Mayor Marty Walsh—a Democrat and former Building Trades union official—to accept concessions and prevent a strike.
Prominent Democrats, including US Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Stephen Lynch, are once again posturing as friends of nurses, showing up Thursday to serve coffee, muffins and pizza and hold a rally. The predicament nurses face—understaffing, attacks on their wages, health benefits and pensions—is largely the outcome of the Obama administration’s attack on health care, which is now being accelerated by Trump.
The striking nurses will not be paid during the five-day lockout. Nonetheless, one told the World Socialist Web Site,“We’re not backing down. We’re too strong.”
Nurses at the Tufts Medical Center, who often work 16-hour double shifts without a chance to sit down or stretch, have been without a contract since April 2016. Their pay is often $8-$12 per hour lower than that of…