BOSTON, Mass. — Nurses at Brigham and Women’s Hospital have turned down what the hospital called its last, best and final contract offer, keeping alive a labor fight that has dragged on for eight months at one of Boston’s biggest hospitals.
Voting ran over two days and closed at 8 p.m. Friday, the Massachusetts Nurses Association said. The union’s bargaining committee, which represents more than 4,000 Brigham nurses, did not say how many members voted yes or no. It said it wants to go back to the bargaining table with Mass General Brigham, the hospital’s parent company.
The nurses are pushing for affordable health insurance, fair pay and protections for patient care. The labor and delivery nurse who chairs the bargaining committee said in a union statement that the result shows the nurses’ resolve and that it is time for the company to come back ready to bargain in good faith.
Hospital leaders said in a statement that they were disappointed. They defended the offer as a real investment in nurses that kept Brigham pay among the highest in the market, and they said the hospital is prepared to keep care running without interruption whatever the union decides to do next.
The vote leaves open the chance of a strike. An open-ended walkout had been scheduled for Oct. 14 before it was put off, and the union now has to weigh whether to go ahead with it. In July, nurses staged a one-day strike, and the hospital kept them out for four more days because it had promised temporary replacement nurses, nearly 1,300 of them, five days of work.
The dispute comes as Mass General Brigham is in the middle of job cuts and other moves to trim spending across the system.
Section: More Boston MA business news
Boston business profiles
Filed under: Boston MA Business News
