One day nurses strike V Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston ended Thursday morning but began a four-day lockout that kept 4,000 union nurses from entering the facility.
Hundreds of nurses walked off the picket line at 7am, marking the end of a 24-hour strike for higher wages. As they approached the hospital’s front door chanting “Let us in!” they were rejected. The nurses then returned to picketing outside the main campus on Francis Street.
“We want to get back to work”
“It was a defeat. It was absolute defeat and demoralization. We want to get back to work. We only wanted to do this for 24 hours. We want to be there and take care of our patients, and that’s what we’re asking for, and they just won’t let us,” said the union’s lead negotiator Kelly Morgan.
CBS Boston via Penny Kmitt
Mass General Brigham (MGB), who owns the hospital, hired about 1,300 reserve nurses work a five-day shift. The strike was planned for one day, but the nurses will be locked out for another four days. The hospital said this is because new nurses are contracted to work for five days.
It was largest health strike in the history of Massachusetts. MGB has been negotiating two contracts for months: one for 4,000 nurses at Brigham and Women’s and another for nearly 500 home health workers.
Home health workers have been on strike for a week. This is scheduled to end at 8 a.m. on Wednesday, July 15, the hospital said. On Thursday, more than 175 new doctors began relieving striking staff.
The hospital said Brigham nurses are already paid competitively and receive an annual five percent raise based on their length of service. But the union said the hospital offered them a zero percent base pay increase because the cost of living in the Boston area is at an all-time high.
Both sides met with Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey on Wednesday at the State House but were unable to reach an agreement on a new contract.
Massachusetts General Brigham said the hospital “remains open and fully operational, and patients should continue to come for their scheduled appointments unless they hear directly from their medical team.”
“We understand how stressful this time is for patients, which is why the hospital has activated comprehensive operational and emergency preparedness plans, including leadership outreach, clinical staff plans, patient communications and coordination across the Mass General Brigham staff to ensure patients continue to receive high-quality, safe care,” MGB said in a statement.
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Dispute over medical emergency
There was also a disagreement between the union and the MGB over the handling of emergency medical treatment outside the hospital on Thursday morning.
“The people inside did not pay attention quickly to respond to this emergency, so I crossed the picket line and took care of the patient. I took the patient to the hospital where he needed to be. There was a delay in the coding team responding or even calling the code, and that delayed the patient getting the care they needed,” Morgan said.
The MGB responded with a statement that said: “We immediately mobilized the necessary emergency specialized care team, which arrived at the designated location a few minutes after receiving the call. Upon arrival, the patient was no longer at that location because she was being escorted to another location in the hospital by nurses involved in the work stoppage.”
“Our adult, midwifery and neonatal emergency response processes are designed to provide the fastest possible expert clinical assessment and care for patients who require emergency medical attention,” the hospital said. “The action that occurred this morning went beyond these established processes and interfered with emergency response efforts by creating unnecessary risk.”
When will the BWH nurses lockout end?
The lockout is scheduled to end on Monday, July 13 at 7 a.m.
“We are not going to leave. We will stay here and fight until they let us in,” said Brigham operating room nurse Felicia James.
The Brigham has provided additional information for patients and families on its website.
The lockout does not affect the Brigham’s sister institution, Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Their nurses are not unionized.