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Nurses at Faulkner Hospital in JP plan strike for October
Over a year of negotiations, Faulkner nurses say they've been fighting for pay similar to what nurses make elsewhere in the Mass General Brigham system.
Nurses at Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital in Jamaica Plain are planning a 24-hour strike next month, according to an announcement from the Massachusetts Nurses Association.
The union sent a formal strike notice to Mass General Brigham on Monday. The strike would start Oct. 1 at 7 a.m. and last until the following morning. Picketing around the hospital is being planned for that date. A 10-day notice is required by law.
The MNA said that the strike would only happen if MGB continues to decline to meet the union’s contract demands. A federal mediator is currently involved in negotiations between the two parties, and more bargaining sessions are expected to occur before Oct. 1.
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“Unfortunately, MGB has reached a point where their executives care more about profits and expansion than respect nurses and ensuring safe staffing for our patients,” said Dan Rec, a Faulkner nurse and co-chair of the MNA Bargaining Committee, in a statement. “We are prepared to strike for one day, unless MGB returns to the bargaining table and offers a fair contract that allows us to recruit and retain the nurses we need to provide safe patient care.”
Mass General Brigham has been negotiating with the MNA since the fall of 2023. Through 13 sessions, including two with a federal mediator, progress has been made, a spokesperson for the healthcare system said in a statement to Boston.com Monday. This includes offering “a considerable increase in wages.”
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“Our focus remains on continuing the negotiation process while providing high-quality, safe care for our patients. If a strike does take place on October 1 as the union indicated, we are positioned to provide the care our patients expect without interruption,” the hospital spokesperson said.
Around 500 nurses at Faulkner are represented by the MNA and would participate in the strike, according to the union. They are demanding pay equal to what nurses in the Mass General Brigham system make elsewhere, and say that management’s failure to treat them equally is contributing to staffing shortages and unsafe conditions.
There are dozens of vacant positions at Faulkner, the union said, and MGB leaders treat Faulkner like it is part of the Brigham and Women’s “family.” Faulkner Hospital was brought into the Brigham network in 1998. It changed its name to to Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital in 2012.
Earlier this month, nurses at Brigham and Women’s voted to ratify a new contract of their own, increasing wages and averting a possible strike. During those negotiations, the MNA negotiated wage increases of up to 30% over the next two and a half years for Brigham nurses, and quadrupled the hourly rate for some on-call nurses, the union said. That contract was the result of 29 bargaining sessions over 11 months which also included a federal mediator.
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The Faulkner nurses overwhelmingly voted to authorize a potential strike in July, saying that they had been negotiating since October 2023 to no avail.
“This strike really comes down to MGB valuing Faulkner nurses less than other nurses in the same hospital system, creating staffing shortages and putting our patients at risk,” Faulkner nurse and Co-Chair of the MNA Bargaining Committee Kathy Glennon said in a statement.
The MNA cited data from the Center for Health Information and Analysis that showed how Mass General Brigham made $579 million system-wide in profits during the fiscal period ending Dec. 31, 2023. During that period, Faulkner made $9.5 million in profits.
The union has criticized MGB President and CEO Anne Klibanksi’s pay. After a 25% salary increase from 2020 to 2021 and subsequent raises, she now makes more than $6 million, the The Boston Globe reported. The MNA pointed out MGB’s plans to spend $2 billion on expanding Mass General Hospital and Faulkner. The union also highlighted reports that the company paid $465 million for a new Somerville headquarters and a reported $100 million on a rebranding campaign in recent years.
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