Brigham and Women's nurses vote to go on one-day strike over wages, staffing levels
BOSTON - Thousands of nurses at Brigham and Women's Hospital have voted to go on a one-day strike after the unionized force says they are in a contract stalemate over wages, benefits, and staffing levels.
The Massachusetts Nurses Association said votes resulted in 2,507 nurses saying yes to 16 no (99.37% yes).
Threatening to walk off the job isn't something Brigham and Women's nurses like Jen DeVincent take lightly, but the two-decade labor and delivery nurse said she's ready to picket for one day because she wants to see changes in safety and security at the hospital.
"Everyone deserves a safe hospital to work in. The nurses deserve to be safe; our patients deserve to be safe; it doesn't make sense we're talking security after all this time," said DeVincent. "We want to be taking care of our patients, we're nurses to take care of patients, we're not nurses to be out here on the sidewalk, so we don't want to strike, the hospital is forcing our hand."
After nearly a year and 30 negotiation sessions, the Massachusetts Nurses Association and the hospital are at a deadlock.
4,000 nurses will strike at state's second-largest hospital
Four thousand Brigham and Women's nurses are voting to kick off a 24-hour labor strike at the state's second-largest hospital, which could have a significant impact at a time when experts say hospitals in Massachusetts are already strained from shortages.
Emergency room nurse Kerrie Young says she sees it every day.
"We have oncology patients and they're lying in the hallway for hours even days and they're next to a patient with COVID," said Nurse Young. "And we're putting all our patients at risk because we don't have enough space or enough nurses to take care of them."
Hospital officials prepared to continue discussions
Officials at Mass General Brigham sent a statement saying in part, "We have been negotiating in good faith with the Massachusetts Nursing Association's two bargaining committees at both Brigham and Women's Hospital and Brigham and Women's Faulkner Hospital, with a genuine desire to come to agreement with both committees. We have made progress, reached tentative agreements on many issues, and feel confident that we proposed fair contracts that will allow us to continue our trend of meeting or exceeding national staffing rates. We are prepared to continue discussions and deeply value the contributions of our nurses in meeting the needs of our patients and their loved ones."
"It's demoralizing to go home shift after shift feeling that I did not provide the proper care to my patients," said Young.
Nurses at the Brigham and Women's Faulkner Hospital represented by the same union will also be voting to strike on Thursday.
The union and hospital are set to have another meeting on August 8th, and if that goes nowhere, the union must give the hospital 10 days' notice before going on strike.