BOSTON, Mass — Thousands of nurses at Brigham and Women’s Hospital will report to work inside the hospital Thursday instead of joining an outside picket line after the union and Mass General Brigham reached a tentative contract agreement.
Nurses were planning an indefinite strike that would have started at 7 a.m. Thursday.
Kelly Morgan, Chair of the BWH MNA Bargaining Committee, said the union was called into negotiations with MGB Wednesday afternoon around 1 p.m.
She said after back-and-forth conversations, they were able to reach a tentative agreement at about 11 p.m.M Wednesday night.
“Oh, my god. There are no words. I’m so happy for our patients, the city of Boston, and for the 4,000 nurses and their families who, you know, h a pot of anxiety over what was about to happen,” said Morgan.
She continued, “We appreciate everybody’s support and coming and being supportive of what we were trying to do and maintain the integrity of our union contract for the future of our union within the institution.”
Brigham and Women’s Hospital said in a statement:
“We are pleased that Brigham and Women’s Hospital has reached a tentative agreement with the Massachusetts Nurses Association and the MNA has called off its scheduled indefinite strike. The agreement remains subject to ratification by nurses in the bargaining unit, which the MNA has indicated it will support. Importantly, the agreement was reached within the financial limits of the hospital’s last, best, and final offer presented on Oct. 10. We deeply value our Brigham nurses and believe this agreement recognizes their important contributions while supporting the long-term sustainability of our hospital and our ability to care for our patients and communities. We are also grateful to the nursing leaders, clinicians, and staff across Mass General Brigham who worked tirelessly to ensure we were prepared to provide safe, high-quality care under any circumstance.”
The MNA outlined what the new contract covers that addresses the Brigham nurses’ central priorities of protecting safe patient care, preserving affordable health insurance, and protecting nurses’ wage scale.
The MNA released these highlights:
- Protecting patient care by addressing temporary staffing and floating:
- The hospital committed in contract language that it does not intend to replace permanent Brigham nurses with temporary nurses.
- The hospital will post 20 new 36-hour float pool nurse positions to help limit reliance on temporary nurses and reduce the need to float nurses.
- The hospital will track floating into and out of each unit and the use of temporary nurses. It will provide the MNA with data that will be reviewed by a new joint Staffing and Resources Committee that will look for ways to reduce floating and the use of temporary staff.
- The hospital will discuss with the MNA whether to post positions for temporary nurses who are not covering a leave of absence or covering orientation.
- Limiting temporary staffing supports continuity of care by keeping more patients with nurses who know their units, colleagues, hospital policies and specialized care practices.
- Reducing floating helps nurses remain in their areas of expertise, addressing the patient safety risks that arise when nurses are reassigned to unfamiliar settings.
- Additionally, the hospital must provide the MNA with a rationale whenever more than 15% of the FTE positions in any hospital unit/cost center are covered by temporary nurses.
- Enabling charge nurses to better coordinate and protect patient care:
- Charge nurses and Nurses-in-Charge will be guaranteed a less acute patient assignment or no patient assignment, allowing these nurses to help with the flow of patients in and out of the unit, and to assist nurses caring for more acute patients.
- This protection gives nurses responsible for coordinating care greater capacity to support bedside nurses, respond to emergencies, oversee admissions and address safety concerns across their units.
- Fighting back against health insurance cost increases:
- Nurses defeated a proposed Harvard Pilgrim premium split increase for all current nurses.
- Nurses agreed to a compromise on 40-hour nurses on individual plans. Current nurses working 40 hours will retain premium-free coverage while newly hired 40-hour nurses will contribute 2.5% of the premium.
- Preserving affordable coverage helps nurses and their families stay healthy while nurses continue caring for others.
- Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN) practice management time:
- The hospital has inconsistently provided practice management time for APRNs in ambulatory settings to chart outside of their scheduled clinic visits. This has meant APRNs being pressured by management to work without being paid to complete their work.
- This agreement requires the hospital to meet with the MNA to work toward an agreement about providing ambulatory APRNs with dedicated practice management time.
- Wages:
- Duration: Ratification to Sept. 30, 2028
- Effective Nov. 15, 2026:
- Add a new top step that is 2.5% above step 21.
- Effective upon ratification:
- All nurses below the top step will receive a $1,000 bonus pro-rated based on FTE hours.
- Effective Sept. 30, 2027:
- Add a new top step that is 2.5% above step 22.
- Additional protections and benefits:
- The agreement strengthens cancellation protections by adding travelers and other temporary staff to the cancellation order and requiring advance notice or compensation when certain extra shifts are canceled.
- Expanded access to education for nurses by providing additional funding and new language ensuring all nurses can take conference time.
- Improves equitable access to vacation.
- Adds grandchildren to bereavement leave.
- Expands specialty certification reimbursement to all regularly scheduled nurses.
- Nurses secured protection involving hospital mobile devices.
- Added paid time for workplace-related court appearances.
After the new contract was reached, BWH Nurse Jen DeVincent said, “I’ve never seen us be as unified as we are right now, and it’s absolutely amazing. So I hope we take this with us and move on from here and get back to work.”
She added, “We were fighting for patient safety. We’re fighting for staff ratios, for health care. There are so many things that that goes into play, you know, with the work that we do. And I’m just happy that we got the hospital to come back to the table. And here we are.”
The contract will still need to be ratified.
The hospital said the union has indicated it will support that ratification.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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