A tentative agreement has been reached to prevent a nurse strike at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, the Massachusetts Nurses Association said Thursday.
The deal comes about two weeks after nurses voted overwhelmingly to approve a one-day strike. Union members said at the time that a year of contract negotiations had failed to bring an agreement.
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The union was asking the hospital system for additional security and competitive wages to keep staff from going to other hospitals.
"Brigham nurses have demonstrated the power of union solidarity," Kelly Morgan, a labor and delivery nurse and MNA chair at the hospital, said in a statement Thursday. "When we fight alongside our colleagues for our patients and our nursing practice, we win."
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The union says the agreement incudes staffing improvements, steps to prevent workplace violence and a choice of health insurance.
"MGB executives did not want to provide such a significant settlement, but nurses held strong and won a huge victory through determination and solidarity," BWH MNA Vice Chair Jim McCarthy said in a statement. "Our patients will benefit from this agreement because a better valued nurse workforce means improved staffing levels and safer care."
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Separately, a day after Brigham and Women's nurses voted to authorize a strike, nurses at Brigham and Women's Faulkner Hospital did the same. Thursday's tentative agreement does not affect that, but the Massachusetts Nurses Association notes that no strike has been scheduled.
