Butler Hospital announced Thursday it will close its addiction treatment unit next week, leaving the Providence psychiatric facility at about half its full capacity of 197 beds.
The addiction unit comprises 29 beds and serves patients with substance use disorders who want detox treatment. The hospital noted in a news release that emergency departments statewide are able to care for these patients while the unit is closed. Two other units totalling about 70 beds were closed in July, making this the third unit Butler has closed since the strike began.
The Providence psychiatric hospital has cited the ongoing SEIU 1199NE strike, now in its 12th week, as the impetus for the closures. The unionized workforce of nurses, mental health workers, and dietary, clerical and support staff — about 724 workers in all — have been on strike since May 15.
“Because of their unrelenting labor strike, we have had to close another 29 beds and shutter our addiction unit, reducing capacity for people struggling the most,” Mary Marran, the hospital’s president and COO said in a statement Thursday. “If SEIU’s political leaders truly cared about the vulnerable patients who rely on Butler Hospital, they would stop moving the goal posts and work in good faith to end this strike.”
Rhode Island Current reached out to SEIU 1199NE for comment but had not heard back by press time.
On Wednesday, the union and hospital negotiated formally, with a federal mediator present, for the first time in about six weeks. But in an email obtained by Rhode Island Current, Michael Wagner, the CEO of Butler’s owner Care New England, wrote that the talks were not much more productive this time around, despite a promising beginning.
“Early in the session, the union restructured its health plan proposal to remain within our proposed financial framework,” Wagner wrote. “While the new structure was not our preferred approach, we acknowledged it was a step forward. Unfortunately, as the day and night progressed, the union introduced additional proposals — both economic and non-economic — that would significantly increase the cost of the contract.”
The negotiating session lasted 15 hours overall, and ended after 3 a.m. Wagner wrote that the union “shift[ed] the goal posts” and “introduced complexities,” including larger wage increases, that he argued the hospital and Care New England could not sustain.
“There were several moments yesterday and into the night when an agreement could have been reached — moments when the union could have claimed real progress for their members,” Wagner wrote. “Instead, they pushed for more.”
A video posted on Aug. 5 to the strikers’ new website counters the hospital’s leadership narrative, and claims that the union’s bargaining committee is made up entirely of frontline Butler workers and that it crafts counterproposals and contract priorities based on its membership’s input.
“No one tells us what to fight for,” Catherine Maynard, a registered nurse, says in the video.
“We decide together as a union,” adds John Cabral, an occupational therapy assistant, speaking after Maynard.
Union members have previously criticized Butler’s offer as inadequate, citing what it calls “poverty wages” of a little over $18 for housekeeping and food service staff as unsustainable given Rhode Island’s cost of living. That wage works out to about $37,500 a year, but the hospital claims that, with all benefits included, the total compensation for these workers is closer to $75,000.
A full breakdown of the hospital’s July 11 proposal, which it has repeatedly called its “last, best, and final” offer, remains available on Butler’s website.
This story was originally published by the Rhode Island Current.
