Nurses at Brigham and Women's Hospital called off a planned work stoppage Saturday evening, with the union indicating that members would first cast ballots on a contract proposal the hospital had put forward as its definitive offer. The proposal came at the 27th round of contract talks, following roughly 24 hours of bargaining spread across Thursday and Saturday. The union's planned Wednesday walkout was still days away when the notice came through.
The Massachusetts Nurses Association noted that the work stoppage, described as open-ended, was structured to remain in place until both parties arrived at a contract. The two parties agreed to a delay, reflecting some movement in their negotiations, though the prospect of a work stoppage has not been ruled out.
MNA spokesperson Joe Markman said in a written statement to a news outlet that a ratification vote was in the process of being scheduled, noting that nurses at Brigham were engaged in an internal union review of Mass General Brigham's offer to determine whether it adequately addressed their core concerns, and that the strike notice had been withdrawn to allow that deliberation to proceed. Brigham and Women's Hospital, in its own statement, expressed gratitude that the notice was pulled and said its concluding proposal was designed to reflect the contribution nurses make to patient care while accounting for obligations to patients, staff, and the hospital's long-term financial position.
Wages and health coverage sat at the centre of the package the hospital put forward, matching what the union had identified as its main bargaining priorities. Under the proposed agreement, nurses with the longest tenure would see their wage ceiling climb by 2.5 percent in each of two successive years, with the deal running through September 30, 2028.
The union had previously sought across-the-board pay rises tied to inflation and affordability. In a Saturday statement, union representatives said that nurses had devoted extensive hours to negotiations and made concessions in an effort to find common ground, yet the hospital had not agreed to cost-of-living wage adjustments — a position the union characterised as an attempt to undermine its collective standing and one it argued placed patients and the broader community at a disadvantage. Brigham and Women's, for its part, described nursing compensation there as highly competitive and at the top of the market.
Approximately 4,000 nurses at the hospital had walked off the job for a single day on July 8. For four days after that, nursing staff were barred from returning to work, with management pointing to agreements already in place with agency nurses as the basis for the decision. Following the work stoppage, the union contended that Mass General Brigham had not bargained at the table in the manner required by law.
According to the union's statement, management framed the bargaining choices as a fork in the road: workers could either push blanket wage increases to the back burner and address unresolved grievances, or clear those pending disputes off the table and channel the talks toward compensation alone. The union's written response described the framing as a false choice and proposed direct talks with the hospital to look at options around scheduling flexibility. According to the union's written account, the hospital turned down that proposal.
A union release dated Aug. 11 states that a federal mediator conveyed to its members that the hospital had indicated it no longer wished to proceed with nurse negotiations, citing what was described as a deadlock in the process. A ballot held on Sept. 24 returned a 93 percent majority in favour of an open-ended walkout, giving the nurses a mandate to proceed. A walkout date of Oct. 14 was set by the union.
A fourth unfair labor practice charge lodged by the union against Mass General Brigham reached the filing stage on Oct. 5. According to a release from the union, nursing staff had their job descriptions and responsibilities altered by the hospital without any prior collective bargaining over those changes.
Kelly Morgan, a nurse who chairs the bargaining committee, said both sides had arranged to sit down with hospital management in the days before the strike, with preventing what she described as a "healthcare crisis" in the commonwealth as the stated goal. Faced with the prospect of a work stoppage, Massachusetts' full congressional delegation issued a joint statement the previous Wednesday urging both sides to keep talking, noting that the nurses at Brigham and Women's Hospital had shown a readiness to remain at the table with Mass General Brigham leadership.
By Saturday evening, the union had chosen to hold off on the planned action, citing the intricacy of the agreement under discussion and the broader effects a walkout would carry, according to a union statement. A delay of this kind leaves open the prospect that action may yet be taken at a later point. A failure to ratify the contract would require the union to file a fresh 10-day strike notice with the hospital before any work stoppage could proceed. In a written statement, Markman noted that nurses at Brigham and Women's Hospital would weigh their next steps through a deliberative process grounded in patient welfare, community considerations, professional practice, and economic concerns.
