BOSTON (WHDH) - Thousands of Brigham and Women’s Nurses who walked off the job Wednesday tried to go back to work after a one-day strike, but found themselves locked out.
“We set a time-limited strike because we didn’t want to do this to the city of Boston,” said Kelly Morgan, the Brigham Bargaining Committee Chair. “This is a huge disruption to the community, to the patient care continuum.”
Mass General Brigham, the state’s largest healthcare system, said the nurses knew this was coming, explaining, “We communicated this information to nurses before the strike vote…so they understood the implications of a strike before casting their vote.”
A spokesperson for the hospital system said 1,300 qualified temporary nurses have been contracted to fill in for a minimum of five days.
“This is no longer a labor dispute; it is a public safety and public health emergency,” said Peter Caikauskas, the son of a Brigham and Women’s Hospital patient.
Caikauskas said his father has spent the last five months in the hospital’s ICU. He said the regular nurses know his father well, and he has found there is a stark difference with the temporary staff.
“I asked for an attending to speak with him, and the nurse didn’t know how to page an attending. So during the hardest moments, I literally couldn’t get the doctor,” Caikauskas said.
The union is asking for a cost-of-living pay increase, on top of their annual 5 percent raise. Hospital administrators said Brigham nurses are among the highest paid in the market, and the extra increase will add $128 million in labor debts.
“We’re out here because we need to ensure that your families get the pay and the health care you deserve,” Senator Ed Markey said.
Elected leaders are urging the hospital and nurses’ union to negotiate.
“We continue to call, to push the conversation back to the table,” Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said.
The Massachusetts Nurses Association said they have been met with silence from Mass General Brigham.
“They’re not moving,” said Jim McCarthy, the Brigham Bargaining Committee Vice Chair. “They should have been on the phone with us last night. We would have met last night, we’d meet this morning, we’d meet right now. Where are you?”
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