Brigham and Women's Hospital nurses strike in Boston now largest walkout for nurses in Massachusetts history

Thousands of nurses at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston went on strike early Wednesday morning in the largest nurses strike in Massachusetts history.

The hospital said patient care will not be affected. It has hired nearly 1,300 replacement nurses to cover shifts for the next five days. The strike is scheduled for one day, but the nurses will be locked out for four more days. The hospital said that's because the replacement nurses are contracted for five days of work.

The crowd outside the hospital grew so large at one point Boston Police temporarily shut down Francis Street in the Longwood medical area.

BWH nurses strike issues

Mass General Brigham, which operates the hospital, has been negotiating two contracts for several months - one for the 4,000 nurses at Brigham and Women's and another for nearly 500 home health care workers. Both sides are stuck on pay.

The union that represents the nurses, the Massachusetts Nurses Association, said the hospital is proposing zero-percent raises. 

Late Wednesday afternoon, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey called the nurses and hospital management into a meeting at the State House. 

"We met and discussed our grave concerns about what was going on in the hospital to our patients and the governor heard us and we reiterated to Mass General that we are ready willing and able to bargain at any point in time, and we are waiting to hear back from them," said Kelly Morgan, a nurse and MNA chair after the meeting.  

The governor urged both sides to return to bargaining. The nurses union said it was waiting for MGB to respond. 

"I emphasized the urgency of this situation and the need to resolve this dispute as soon as possible," Healey said in a statement. 

The hospital said its nurses are some of the highest paid in the country, with an average salary of more than $147,000. The hospital also argues that their proposal keeps an annual five percent pay raise that's part of the wage scale, adding that their offer "appropriately recognizes our nurses' important contributions while balancing our responsibility to sustain patient care."

"We need to be inside taking care of our patients, not out here. This is on the Brigham, not on us," said union representative Jen Devincent.

While tensions ran high outside, they allegedly boiled over inside, with nurses in the hospital's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).

"They were set to leave at 7 a.m. and they were told they can't leave because of patient safety. So, they actually blocked the elevators from letting them leave," said Devincent.

Two spokespersons for the hospital told WBZ-TV that did not happen.

Some patients and families are worried what the strike will do to the quality of care at the hospital.

"I'm terrified for my dad's care," said Peter Caikauskas. His father had a double lung transplant in February and is still at patient at the Brigham. "But I support the nurses 110 percent."

MGB home health care workers strike

More than 450 Mass General Brigham home health care clinicians also walked off the job in Braintree Wednesday after what they said has been 15 months of negotiations.

"We've been at the table looking for patient safety, changes to our working conditions. We're looking for case load limits. We're looking for productivity metrics so that we're not working unpaid hours at the end of every day. And we're looking for wage increases to make it more competitive so that we can retain experienced staff," said Shannon Viera, a nurse with MGB Home Care. "We're small compared to the Brigham but what we do is really important."

The hospital said the strike will not affect scheduled appointments unless patients are notified directly about a change.

Nurses who are scheduled to work at 7 a.m. on Thursday will gather in front of Brigham and Women's Hospital and attempt to enter but anticipate being locked out. Nurses will continue to picket at the hospital 24/7 until the lockout ends on Monday, July 13 at 7 a.m.

The home health care workers strike is set to end on Wednesday, July 15 at 8 a.m., the hospital said.

The Brigham has posted more information for patients and families on its website.