A drawn-out labor dispute at Baystate Franklin Medical Center in Greenfield, Massachusetts, may be ending. The nurses have been working without a contract for more than two years, but Friday afternoon a tentative contract deal was announced. It included a compromise on overtime pay, which had been the main sticking point.
“Both parties made significant concessions to get to this point, both giving up things that were very key to us in the name of trying to get an agreement that we can live with, work with, and move forward with together,” says Chuck Gijanto, President of Baystate Franklin.
State Senator Stan Rosenberg and state Representative Steve Kulik helped bring the parties together. The tentative deal led the nurses to cancel a one-day strike scheduled for this coming Monday. The deal still must be ratified by the nurses.