That determination was shared by the several hundred strikers and their supporters who turned out for a candlelight march and vigil July 17. It was one of the largest of a series of strike solidarity actions held by the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA), their union.

As the strike enters its third month, no progress in reaching a settlement was reported after a July 26 bargaining session. Elaine Thibault, a short-stay surgical nurse with 30 years experience, said, "Things are going nowhere at the negotiating table. We are seeking clear language on staffing and overtime."

These are the central issues in dispute: a contractual commitment to adequate staffing to prevent the need for forced overtime, and the right to refuse overtime whenever a nurse feels too tired or ill to deliver safe care. They are also seeking double the paltry 3 percent annual raise offered by management.

The striking nurses see themselves as standing up not only for themselves but at the same time for patients and better health care. As Barbara Milligan, a medical/surgical nurse with 27 years at Brockton Hospital, explained, "I need to do this to provide better working conditions and respect for nursing. In the last 15 years there's been a decline in respect. It's all about money: giving the cheapest cost, basic health care--get them in, get them out. HMOs have overtaken medicine at the expense of the patients, who are put at risk when health care workers are tired and overwhelmed."

"Morale is high," Thibault reported, adding that "no one has crossed the picket line. Unemployment benefits have made things easier. But there has to be movement. The hospital could be destroyed by all the money he [CEO Norman Goodman] is paying to continue the strike breaking."

Scabs were flown in by U.S. Nursing Corp., which provides nurses to cross picket lines nationwide, including during last year's seven-week strike won by the MNA against St. Vincent's Hospital in Worcester.

A pay stub for one of the strikebreakers fell into strikers' hands--reportedly left on a hospital copy machine--showing $4,500 for an 84-hour workweek.

The picket line is a din of honking from passing motorists giving support, and a wide range of unionists and others come out to the picket lines. Of the 455 MNA members in the bargaining unit, 94 percent went on strike May 25. Not one of these nurses has broken ranks.

Striker Lynn McMahon commented, "We are united, but the hospital administration does not seem to be affected by anything. He [Goodman] called elderly supporters of the strike who came to our picket line 'outside agitators.' The police said the elderly sitting in chairs at the picket line had to stand up."

Another supporter is Alicia Rose, a teacher who has visited the lines many times. She said, "The strike has opened my eyes to what unions are for. Through all of this I have come to know what unions are all about. I work at a private school and we are discussing the need to organize there."

Sarah Ullman is a garment worker in the Boston area. Brock Satter, a meat packer, contributed to this article.  
 
 
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