Worcester Business Journal

www.wbjournal.com June 22, 2015 • Worcester Business Journal 29 The union, the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA), has been quite vocal about its grievances, and at times been outright confrontational in its public statements. When it has felt it has been pushed too far, the organization has not been hesitant to call out a hospital's management when it believes reduced staffing levels threaten nurses' ability to do their jobs right. So, it came as a pleasant surprise that the MNA, in announcing the new contract, touted the introduction of a "respectful relationship" clause, which calls for the establishment of a process for union and management to meet to address outstanding grievances and "proactively" address ongoing concerns about staffing and workplace issues. That process has already begun for the emergency rooms, the union said. And that's a good starting point now that UMass Memorial has linked up with CareWell Urgent Care of Quincy to open three urgent care centers in Central Massachusetts, whose purpose is to remove some of the burden from hospital emergency rooms. This calming of the waters comes at a time when UMass Memorial is seeking to maintain the momentum of better financial results after ending its 2013 fiscal year with a $55 million operating loss. In the two years since Eric Dickson took over as CEO, he has been pursuing what the system's new human resources director calls a "cultural transformation" to focusing on the patient, and strategies that empower front-line caregivers to have more power in decision making. "Much remains to be done" in pursuit of that, said the human resources chief, Bart Metzger, who may be the most satisfied executive in Central Massachusetts this month after negotiating with the unions and closing the one-year deal. The agreement buys UMass Memorial some time to work through the changes in the organization and industry before sitting down again to hammer out a new — and we hope longer — contract. The one-year deal will succeed a recently expired three-year pact. But there are others who may be amazed simply because of the nature of the new contract. "Whenever there is a paradigm change being contemplated by either labor or management … there is a healthy dose of skepticism," Metzger told the Worcester Business Journal last week. "There are a number of folks who couldn't imagine (UMass Memorial and the union) having a different kind of conversation." He called it a "huge breakthrough." We hope this is a sign of a more amicable relationship that will benefit management, labor, patients, and the community. Because UMass Memorial is the region's largest employer, what happens there impacts the entire health-care ecosystem and the economy. A steadier, less contentious relationship with this large group of employees is welcome news. n Contract with nurses offers hope amid industry change E D I T O R I A L The Worcester Business Journal welcomes letters to the editor and commentary submissions. Please send submissions to Rick Saia, editor, at rsaia@wbjournal.com. Letters can also be faxed to 508-755-8860. E arlier this year, the Worcester Sharks announced they would leave the DCU Center for California. With the hockey team's departure, Worcester is without a professional sports franchise for the first time in over 20 years. At the same time, the Pawtucket Red Sox, Boston's AAA affiliate, announced they want to leave 70-year-old McCoy Stadium for greener — and certainly newer — pastures. Could Worcester be the new home? Worcester is the 4th-largest metropolitan area in the United States that does not have at least one professional sports franchise (behind Honolulu; Tucson, Ariz. and New Haven, Conn.). That makes it an attractive site for a minor league club. One can certainly imagine the thrill of enjoying high-level professional baseball on a beautiful New England night here. Unfortunately, while the heart says "yes" to minor league baseball, the mind, especially the pocketbook, should be firmly saying "no." The biggest hurdle to attracting a high-level minor league team to Worcester is a stadium. An AAA-level club would require a modern 10,000-seat facility, which you cannot find in the area. Fitton Field at Holy Cross, home of the Worcester Bravehearts of the Futures Collegiate Baseball League, holds just 3,000, and no other facility in Worcester can even match that figure. That means a new stadium would have to be built, and even minor league stadiums are expensive undertakings today. The new stadium proposed for the PawSox on the Providence riverfront carries an $85 million price tag. Meanwhile, new AAA stadiums that opened in the past year in El Paso, Texas; Charlotte, N.C. and Nashville have averaged more than $55 million in construction costs alone. In most cases, local taxpayers are expected to cover a large portion of the costs. For the Providence stadium, the owners' initial request was that the team be given public land at no cost, that the stadium receive a 30-year property tax exemption, and that the city cover $4 million in annual debt payments for that same period, an amount sufficient to pay for roughly three-quarters of the construction costs. The economic benefits from a minor league baseball team rarely justify these costs. While baseball's boosters would claim that a team would bring in 700,000 fans per year into Worcester, that figure isn't much different from the annual number of customers at a typical large multiplex movie theater. Yet, no one would consider subsidizing millions of dollars for something of that nature. Furthermore, most minor league baseball fans are drawn from the local region, meaning that money spent at the stadium is money that would have otherwise been spent elsewhere in the local economy. Relocating the PawSox to Worcester would provide a nice amenity for the city, and we should welcome the team with open arms. But the city should keep its wallet closed. n Victor Matheson, a professor of economics and accounting at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, teaches sports economics. PawSox to WooSox? Yes! But without public funding BY VICTOR MATHESON Special to the Worcester Business Journal V I E W P O I N T Vic tor Matheson A fter several years of a relationship that many would describe as adversarial, UMass Memorial Health Care and a key union turned a critical corner last week when they reached a one-year contract agreement for the thousands of nurses who work at the system's UMass Memorial Medical Center campuses in Worcester. But it wasn't as much the usual bullet list of benefits and adjusted pay scales that lie at the heart of labor contract negotiations as it was the more nebulous items, outlined in a statement by the union, that are the more important story line. In an industry facing a continuous maelstrom of change and intense pressure to reduce costs, the agreement lays the foundation for a new – and welcome – relationship between the two sides. • An across-the-board salary increase of 1 percent. • No reduction in benefits. • A commitment by UMass Memorial to add nurses to the team that supports nurses on various floors by providing care and support for critically ill patients in the emergency department, responding to patients experiencing a code, and providing IV therapy to some patients to help compensate for the loss of a dedicated IV therapy team. • Management agreement to fill as many vacant nursing positions as possible over the summer, which the union said will help meet a commitment in the contract to place safe limits on nurses' patient assignments. Here's what the one-year contract between UMass Memorial Medical Center and the Massachusetts Nurses Association provides the 2,214 nurses at the Worcester hospitals: Contract details

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