BOSTON, Mass. — Brigham and Women’s Hospital nurses in Boston have set Nov. 12 as the start of an open-ended strike, their second walkout of the year, after turning down the hospital’s newest contract proposal.
The Massachusetts Nurses Association announced the plan on Sunday. More than 4,000 Brigham nurses are covered by the notice, and the union says the picket lines would go up at 7 a.m. that day. Union leaders are calling it the largest open-ended strike the state has seen.
There is still a window for a deal. Bargaining is scheduled to pick back up on Monday, Nov. 9, and a federal mediator will sit in on the talks. The bargaining committee, chaired by a labor and delivery nurse, has said its members are ready to walk out but also ready to settle if the terms are right.
The issues have not changed much since summer. Nurses want better pay, more affordable health insurance and more choice in coverage, a new approach to how patient assignments are made, and limits on the hospital’s use of temporary nurses.
The two sides have been here before. Nurses held a one-day strike in July, and the hospital kept them off the job for several additional days because it had signed contracts with nearly 1,300 replacement nurses. A strike planned for Oct. 14 was called off after Mass General Brigham put forward what officials described as its final offer, the same proposal nurses have now voted down.
Hospital leaders said they were disappointed and that their contingency plans will keep patient care running through any work stoppage. They have described the rejected offer as one that would keep Brigham nursing pay near the top of the market.
The dispute comes as Mass General Brigham, the largest health system in Massachusetts, has announced a second round of layoffs in two years as it works to steady its finances.
Filed under: Boston MA Health News
