NBC Boston covers an informational picket held October 11, 2023 by stateemployed nurses and healthcare professionals over the state’s ongoing, systemic problems with staff recruitment and retention, dangerous working conditions, understaffing, and an overall lack of respect by management.

The picket was held outside the office of the Executive Office of Health and Human Services in Boston.

The nurses and HCPs, who recently began contract talks with the state, are committed to winning contract language that will address these problems and restore the quality of care that patients and clients in staterun facilities deserve.

Patients and clients in Massachusetts’ owned and operated healthcare facilities, centers, and group homes are often among the state’s most atrisk and vulnerable citizens. With state services reaching into every corner of the Commonwealth and touching an exceptionally diverse group of patients and families, it is hard to argue that the role of the Unit 7 state healthcare worker is anything less than essential.

Yet, at nearly every staterun healthcare facility, there are not enough staff members or resources to provide the safe, quality care that patients and clients deserve.

“The working conditions are unhealthy and dangerous, and the wages are significantly behind the wages of other healthcare institutions,” said David Guiney, a Department of Public Health RN at Tewksbury Hospital and cochair of the Unit 7 Executive Board.

Read more: https://www.massnurses.org/2023/10/06...