GREENFIELD, Mass. (AP) - Nurses at a western Massachusetts hospital are ready to walk off the job for the second time in a less than a year.
Roughly 200 unionized nurses at Baystate Franklin Medical Center in Greenfield have a one-day strike scheduled to start at 7 a.m. Wednesday.
The hospital, however, has scheduled a three-day lockout to start at 7 p.m. Tuesday, when it will bring in temporary nurses.
The staff nurses have been embroiled in a year-and-a-half long labor dispute with management. They say they are understaffed and overworked, which they contend puts patient care at risk. They want staffing requirements written into contract language.
Management says such language would rob it of staffing flexibility and says it has addressed all the nurses’ issues regarding staffing, wages and health insurance costs.
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