[[{“value”:”
By: Jake S
WORCESTER, MA – United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) Local 1445 represents almost 1,100 hospital workers across four campuses at UMass Memorial Medical Center. Workers include lab technicians, phlebotomists, scientists, anesthesiologists, housekeeping, food service, and supply chain. Despite the necessity of their labor to the hospital’s operation, union members say the hospital has yet to address serious workplace issues at the bargaining table for their next contract: abuse of non-union per diem and traveling staff which undermines their collective bargaining agreement; low wages and equality of wages across appointments to the same job title; and employer-subsidized health insurance for part-time workers.
At the same time as denying workers their needs, in June 2024, UMass purchased a research and development facility in Holden for support services. Then, in October, UMass acquired the Milford Regional Medical Center. After unveiling its $220 million North Pavilion in January, UMass is currently planning a building expansion to the tune of an additional $27 million. In 2023, UMass Memorial Health’s CEO, Eric Dickson, received a total compensation package of $3.12 million, placing him as the highest-paid nonprofit chief executive in Central Mass for the third year in a row. His pay has more than doubled since he was appointed to the role. Including Dickson, UMass Memorial Health executives accounted for 6 of the 18 highest-paid nonprofit executives in Central Mass in 2023.
On May 27, UFCW members rallied at Regatta Point Park. The following day, members launched informational pickets about their contract fight. Those have run for ten hours every day since. This past Friday, Local 1445 gave its official 10-day notice for strike action to UMass management.
Jake S, a Working Mass contributor and member of Worcester DSA, met with two members of the union’s bargaining committee at their picket – James, who has fixed equipment for the housekeeping department for 18 years, and Mikki, a support tech and phlebotomist of 8 years – to discuss what these expansions have meant for hospital workers and what they need in their next contract with UMass.
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
—–
WM: What’s the most important contract issue on the table right now?
MIKKI: Health insurance and wages – we want a fair contract and the respect that we deserve.
JAMES: And protecting the jobs, not outsourcing them. I work in the housekeeping department, so, years ago, they wanted to outsource us, which would have meant we would have had to work for the company that our managers work for. That’s a different company, not UMass. We don’t want to work for that company, we want to work for UMass.
MIKKI: Yes, that would be technically eliminating our [union] positions.
JAMES: We have 1,100 members – if we outsourced the kitchen staff, that would be almost 600 members cut, which would make our union weaker.
WM: I heard UMass has been lamenting that the hospital’s CEO will only be getting a 1% raise this year – that is, 1% of $3.1 million or more. How does that make you feel?
MIKKI: That’s terrible – we wish we could get that type of money. You know, it’s hard when you’re a single parent. Some people can’t pay rent, can’t buy food. We’re out here struggling – health insurance is big, the wages are big. The cost of living is constantly going up, we need our wages to match that.
JAMES: It’s very disrespectful. We have a lot of housekeepers that can’t afford to pay their rent, they can’t afford to put food on the table. They struggle – I came to work the other day, and I see a housekeeper crying because they can’t pay their rent this month. It’s disgusting.
MIKKI: We have someone sleeping in their car right now, but [CEO Eric Dickson] has a yacht. He can sleep on the yacht. I wish we could sleep in a yacht.
WM: What do you know and how do you feel about the hospital’s recent acquisitions and plans for building expansions? Why do they cry poverty to you if they’re able to do things like that?
JAMES: They just bought Milford Regional; they’re trying to buy Nashoba Valley now to take over the ER; they just built the North Pavilion, and an extension is going to cost $27 million.
MIKKI: It’s very insulting, and it’s adding more work for us without any increase in pay. The Pavilion added a bunch of rooms, which adds new critical conditions that I only have a certain amount of time to report; now we have to rush to get through them and get them called out in a certain amount of time. But the wages don’t match.
WM: Do you think workers should have a right to control more about how the hospital is run?
MIKKI: Absolutely. We’re the ones in the jobs, we’re doing it every day, and they [hospital executives] don’t know much about the jobs.
JAMES: Yes, I think we should have a say in it, because we’re the ones doing the jobs, and they have no idea.
—–
Tomorrow, June 6, workers will vote on the hospital’s current offer. If that offer does not move in the direction union members need it to, a strike authorization vote will be requested, and workers will potentially prepare to launch a strike starting Monday, June 9.
Follow us for updates.
Jake S is a member of Worcester DSA and the United Auto Workers (UAW). He is a contributor to Working Mass.
“}]]