{"id":679098,"date":"2026-06-02T03:49:23","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T03:49:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/679098\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T03:49:23","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T03:49:23","slug":"brigham-nurses-to-hold-strike-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/679098\/","title":{"rendered":"Brigham nurses to hold strike vote"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tensions are escalating between Brigham and Women\u2019s Hospital and the union<\/a> that represents 4,000 nurses at the Harvard teaching hospital.<\/p>\n

Union leaders are vowing to take a vote on June 16 to authorize a one-day strike. If such a walkout takes place, it would be the first at the Brigham in decades, according to Kelly Morgan, chair of the union chapter.<\/p>\n

In a videotaped statement shared with the Globe on Monday, Jim McCarthy, vice chair of the Brigham chapter of the Massachusetts Nurses Association, said the hospital maintained its stance at a bargaining session on Friday and refused to offer a cost-of-living increase in an 18-month contract that both sides are negotiating.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe insults get worse and worse,\u201d he said, gesturing with his hands to emphasize his remarks. \u201cWe need everyone out there to basically vote for the strike. … Then we\u2019ll be able to show them we have real power.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brigham said in a statement that executives \u201cremain committed to reaching a fair agreement.\u201d But the hospital said the union is misleading the public by omitting that Brigham nurses receive an automatic pay increase of 5 percent every year as they progress through a 20-step pay scale.<\/p>\n

\u201cA 5% yearly raise is not 0%,\u201d says one of several charts that Brigham distributed to the Globe. The increases enable a new nursing school graduate working 40 hours a week to start with a salary of $86,700 a year and end up two decades later earning $220,000 a year. <\/p>\n

An 18-month contract between the union and Brigham expired on March 31, Morgan said. The two sides have held 17 bargaining sessions, Morgan said, but the big sticking point is the annual cost-of-living pay raise.<\/p>\n

For decades, Morgan said, Brigham nurses have received such a raise in addition to their annual step increase. This year, for the first time in her 28 years at Brigham, she said, the hospital is offering no cost-of-living increase.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve always had the step increases,\u201d said Morgan, who added that that provision enables Brigham to recruit top-notch nurses. \u201cThen we negotiate an across-the-board increase [to help nurses keep pace with inflation].\u201d<\/p>\n

Brigham officials said the union has requested an additional 15 percent, apart from the 5 percent annual step raises, and that the hospital can\u2019t afford it. Over the past five fiscal years, according to another chart provided by the hospital, Brigham nurses have received a total average increase of 55 percent to their base pay. In comparison, the reimbursement rate for medical care provided to Brigham patients in that period has grown less than 14 percent.<\/p>\n

If the union votes on June 16 to authorize a strike, it remains to be seen when the walkout would occur. The union would have to give notice 10 days in advance of any strike, under state law, to allow the hospital time to minimize disruptions to patient care.<\/p>\n

Jonathan Saltzman can be reached at jonathan.saltzman@globe.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tensions are escalating between Brigham and Women\u2019s Hospital and the union that represents 4,000 nurses at the Harvard…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":679099,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253],"class_list":["post-679098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=679098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679098\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/679099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=679098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=679098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=679098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}