About 75 of Cambridge's municipally employed nurses picketed in front of City Hall last night and packed the city council chambers to gain support for their efforts to settle a six-month-old contract dispute.
The nurses at Cambridge City Hospital, who, city manager Robert Healy agreed last night, are "underpaid" in comparison to staffers at other local municipal hospitals, have been working without a contract since July 1.
The council passed a motion asking Healy to expedite the negotiation process but declined to discuss specifics of the city's latest offer to the nurses because the city charter prohibits the council from entering collective bargaining. The next negotiation session is scheduled for Wednesday.
The city's negotiating team "may think we're close to an agreement, but we're not at all," Margaret E. Sylva, chairperson of the city nurse's union, said. Sylva said that wages and several clerical duties the nurses do not want to continue to perform are the main stumbling blocks to a settlement.
Patient care is currently being harmed by the abnormally large turnover of city nurses caused by low wages, Sylva said.
About 71 per cent of the nurses at Cambridge City Hospital have less than two years experience, Patricia S. Graham, a representative of the nurses' union, told the council.
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