Cooley Dickinson Hospital nurses use picket to spotlight stalled contract talks, pay and turnover

NORTHAMPTON — Dozens of Cooley Dickinson Hospital’s 400 nurses took to Locust Street in front of their hometown hospital on Tuesday afternoon to call attention to stalled negotiations for a new contract and to highlight what they claim is a high turnover rate resulting from low pay and poor benefits.

“We’ve been negotiating with hospital owner Mass General Brigham for about six months now, and in that time, all we have gotten in the way of proposals from management have been proposals that would squeeze nurses harder,” said Aaron Winston, a CDH nurse who has been leading negotiations as co-chair of the hospital’s Massachusetts Nurses Association Committee.

The nurses and others used Tuesday’s information picket to call attention to their claims that MGB is refusing to invest in nurses and has failed to address the serious challenges facing patient care and the nursing workforce.

Winston said the hospital has refused to negotiate higher wages, which has led to stress, burnout, and frustration for nurses and delayed care for patients. He said one proposal would reclassify many nurses to part time, which would raise health insurance costs by as much as $100 a week for some of members.

“Basic respect,” said Winston, are what the nurses are asking for.

Winston and Rosie Tottser, the negotiating committee’s other co-chair and a CDH nurse since 2007, said the picket was organized to decry the proposals, which brought them and their co-workers to the lawn area outside the hospital, where they chanted and waved signs as some pounded on 5-gallon buckets with drumsticks.

In response, Ann LeBrun, interim chief nursing officer at CDH, wrote in an emailed statement Tuesday that the hospital remains “deeply grateful to our nurses for the exceptional care they provide to our patients and community.

“We are committed to continuing to engage with the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA) to reach a fair and reasonable contract that recognizes our nurses’ significant contributions and supports our vital mission … We are hopeful that we will reach agreement in the upcoming months,” LeBrun said.

Pay and turnover

Cooley Dickinson nurses are among the lowest paid in the region, said Winston, which he added, “represents a massive, not only brain drain on Cooley, but it creates an uphill battle for recruitment to fill positions that we already have posted.”

“During the term of the last contract, which has lasted three years, some of our units saw turnover as high as 60%,” said Winston.

Tottser said that percentage represents 189 nurses who have left.

He went on: “We’re out here to send a message that we’re not willing to accept proposals that would put the squeeze on nurses harder. And we’re out here advocating for safe staffing levels and recruitment that would give us the tools and the time we need to do right by the people in our care.”

Nurses picketing Tuesday highlighted how staffing shortages have delayed patient care.

For Tottser, a lot of the pain from the shortages stems from a feeling of defeat. “It is hard as a nurse to feel like you can’t even do enough to make an impact,” she said.

Nurses Sam Gardner and Elizabeth Eliopoulos said patients have long waits before their nurses can respond to their calls, and nurse Emelia Brennan said this has meant longer waits for patients to go to the bathroom, be given medications, or be picked up after a fall.

“I think a lot of our patients enjoy the feel of a community hospital, and that’s going to disappear,” said Eliopoulos. She added that, “I think what people don’t understand about this is that it’s not just for our benefit, but it’s also for the patient’s benefit that we’re doing this. … The nurses deserve the pay is also a big thing.”

CDH nurse Rachel Fournier, said, “I work up on the behavioral health unit, and you know since the pandemic we’ve definitely seen an uptick in behavioral health patients. We are feeling the hospital’s lack of safe staffing levels. They’ll say that they’ve added positions, but we have high turnover throughout the hospital and in our unit. There may be positions open, but they’re not being filled.”

She added that, “I have nurses reaching out to me all the time to work at Cooley, and then they see the pay and they say it’s a seven to ten dollar pay cut from what they’re making now.”

Mariel Boyarsky said nurses are currently overseeing patients — as many as five per shift — compared to the four patients they see when the hospital is fully staffed.

“When we’re short we’re doing work for free,” she said.

Northampton City Councilor Jeremy Dubs was one of a handful of speakers who attended the event.

“I can say confidently without bragging, that not only do I love nurses, but nurses love me,” said Dubs, who uses a wheelchair due to a brittle bone disease.

“Nurses brought me into this world, and have been taking care of me ever since. … The time is now for all of us to support nurses so they can continue supporting us.”

Luke Rotello, a candidate for the Ward 5 seat on the City Council who lives just blocks away from the hospital, led the crowd to chant, “forward together,” after giving a short speech in which he mourned that corporate greed is responsible for “decimating our essential services.”

That greed had been a point made in Winston’s speech as well. He pointed out that Mass General Brigham’s CEO makes $6 million in a year, and that the hospital system reported more than $20 billion in revenue in 2024. That same year, he said, Cooley Dickinson reported profits of $9.7 million.

Samuel Gelinas can be reached at sgelinas@gazettenet.com.