The more than 4,000 registered nurses at Brigham and Women's Hospital reached a tentative contract agreement with Mass General Brigham on Nov. 11, hours before an open-ended strike was set to begin Nov. 12, the Massachusetts Nurses Association said. The union's bargaining committee will recommend that members ratify the agreement. Neither the union's release nor the hospital's statement gives a vote date.
Gov. Maura Healey said in a Nov. 12 statement that she "appreciated the opportunity to meet with both sides and urge them to stay at the table and continue working in good faith toward a resolution." Her statement says the agreement averted a strike.
Brigham and Women's Hospital said in a statement posted Nov. 11 on Mass General Brigham's newsroom that the agreement "remains subject to ratification by nurses in the bargaining unit" and "was reached within the financial limits of the hospital's last, best and final offer presented on Oct. 10." The hospital said: "We deeply value our Brigham nurses and believe this agreement recognizes their important contributions."
Staffing and floating
The terms below come from the union's summary of the tentative agreement. The hospital has committed in contract language that it does not intend to replace permanent Brigham nurses with temporary nurses, according to the union. The union says the hospital will post 20 new 36-hour float pool nurse positions, and that it will track floating into and out of each unit and track its use of temporary nurses.
A new joint Staffing and Resources Committee will review that data. The hospital must also give the union a rationale whenever more than 15 percent of the full-time-equivalent positions in a unit or cost center are covered by temporary nurses. Charge nurses and Nurses-in-Charge are guaranteed a less acute patient assignment or none.
Health insurance and pay
The union said nurses defeated a proposed increase in the Harvard Pilgrim premium split for all current nurses. Current nurses working 40 hours will keep premium-free coverage on individual plans, while newly hired 40-hour nurses on those plans will contribute 2.5 percent of the premium.
The contract would run from ratification to Sept. 30, 2028. It adds a new top pay step 2.5 percent above step 21 effective Nov. 15, 2026, and another top step 2.5 percent above step 22 effective Sept. 30, 2027. Nurses below the top step would receive a $1,000 bonus, pro-rated by full-time-equivalent hours, upon ratification.
How the dispute got here
The union listed a July 8 one-day strike and four-day lockout, a Sept. 24 vote authorizing an open-ended strike and an Oct. 2 notice of a strike beginning Oct. 14. Nurses voted Oct. 22 and 23 to reject what the union called Mass General Brigham's "last, best, and final" offer. The union said the Nov. 11 agreement came hours before a newly scheduled strike.
