Overview
- About 4,000 nurses began a planned one-day strike on July 8 that turned into a four-day lockout when the hospital kept replacement staff on five-day contracts.
- Nurses walked back into Brigham and Women’s Hospital on Monday after the stoppage but returned without a new contract and with no new bargaining session scheduled.
- Mass General Brigham contracted roughly 1,300 temporary nurses to cover shifts and said operations were unaffected, a claim nurses dispute with reports of handoff and care concerns in some units.
- The central bargaining split is over pay and benefits: the union seeks specific across-the-board raises and limits on temporary staffing while the hospital points to annual step increases and calls additional raises financially unsustainable.
- Nearly 500 Mass General Brigham home‑health clinicians continued a separate weeklong strike for their first contract after unionizing in 2024 and have a rally planned Tuesday in Somerville.