Boston-based Brigham and Women's Hospital and its nurses union have reached a tentative agreement in time to avoid a strike that was scheduled to begin Monday, The Boston Globe reports.
The Massachusetts Nurses Association, which represents 3,300 nurses at Brigham, reached the tentative agreement with the hospital this weekend, averting what would have been the largest nurse strike in the state's history.
The tentative agreement includes a 2.5 percent increase to nurses at the top of the pay scale, and includes a 2 percent raise for all nurses over three years, the MNA said in a statement. The hospital and union also agreed on language that allows nurses to help set policies on the use of mobile alarm systems in the hospital, according to the report.
The deal, reached with the help of state officials, comes after 10 months and 23 negotiating sessions between the hospital and nurses. The contract talks — often contentious — had intensified in recent weeks.
Nurses had planned to stage a one-day strike, beginning at 7 a.m. June 27. Brigham, owned by Boston-based Partners HealthCare, said on its website that it has also already contracted with an outside agency to supply roughly 700 replacement nurses in case of a strike, and would lock out the union nurses an additional four days.
As far as patients, hundreds either were transferred from the hospital or had their appointments and procedures canceled so Brigham could scale down operations during the walkout, according to the report. The hospital said it now would quickly revert to normal operations, the report states.
The tentative agreement still needs to be ratified by the full Brigham nurse membership. The three-year contract, if ratified by the full MNA/Brigham nurse membership, will start Oct. 1 and will expire Sept. 30, 2018.
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