BOSTON (WHDH) - Brigham and Women’s Hospital nurses have reached a tentative agreement with the hospital, averting a planned one-day strike that would have been the largest in Massachusetts history.
The agreement, which was reached late Saturday night, still needs to be ratified.
More than 3,300 nurses planned to strike for 24 hours to ensure safe patient care. Nurses said they have been especially concerned about safety after Dr. Michael Davidson was shot in an exam room last year. Davidson died hours later from his injuries.
“The last few weeks have been difficult for everyone involved and this news will enable us to move forward together as a community,” Brigham and Women’s Hospital said in a statement.
Members of the nurses’ union said they feel their relationship with Partners Healthcare, the company that runs the hospital, is broken.
“They underestimated us and they thought they could break us,” one nurse told 7News.
The agreement includes improved security and increased wages. The new contract will go into effect as of Oct. 1, 2015 and will expire Sept. 30, 2018.
The hospital will have a press conference with Mayor Walsh around noon Monday to discuss the deal.
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