Brigham and Women's Hospital Reaches Tentative Deal With About 4,000 Nurses, Averting an Open-Ended Strike Set for November 12
Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, and the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA), which represents about 4,000 nurses at the hospital, reached a tentative contract agreement late on November 11, averting an open-ended strike that had been set to begin at 7 a.m. on November 12. The walkout had been billed as the largest open-ended nurses strike in Massachusetts history. The deal, reached only hours before the strike was to start, still needs approval from the nurses, and no date for the ratification vote has been announced.
Under the terms summarized by the union, the contract would run through September 30, 2028. The hospital will post 20 new float-pool nurse positions to help limit reliance on temporary nurses; it states that it does not intend to replace permanent nurses with temps, and must give a reason if temps fill more than 15 percent of positions in a unit. On pay, a new top step 2.5 percent above step 21 takes effect November 15, with another 2.5 percent top step on September 30, 2027, and every nurse below the top step gets a $1,000 bonus, pro-rated by hours. The union said it also beat back a bigger share of Harvard Pilgrim health insurance premiums for current nurses. The hospital said the agreement was reached within the financial limits of its "last, best and final" offer.
Kelly Morgan, a labor and delivery nurse who chairs the union's bargaining committee, said the union was called back to negotiations around 1 p.m. Wednesday and reached the tentative agreement at about 11 p.m. The bargaining committee will recommend that members vote to ratify it.
Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey said in a statement on November 12 that she was pleased the administration and the nurses had reached a tentative agreement, averting a strike and keeping the focus on protecting care for patients and families, and that she had met with both sides and urged them to stay at the table and keep working in good faith. Healey and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu had also attended Monday's bargaining session to urge both sides toward a fair contract.
Related: Boston Brigham nurses leaflet to press their case, with an open-ended strike possible on November 12
(Source: Massachusetts Nurses Association)
Source: Massachusetts Nurses Association
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Photo: 图：位于波士顿的布里格姆妇女医院 Hale 医疗大楼（资料图）。ajay_suresh 摄，CC BY 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: The Hale Building for Transformative Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston (file photo). Photo by ajay_suresh, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
