Brigham and Women's nurses union sets date for largest open-ended nurses strike in Mass. history

The Brigham and Women's Hospital nurses' union has announced plans to go on strike for the second time this year after voting to reject the hospital's last contract offer. 

The union set a start date of Thursday, Nov. 1 at 7 a.m. for an open-ended strike. 

"There is not one Brigham nurse that wants to strike. We want this contract settled," Jen DeVincent, who's been a nurse at Brigham and Women's Hospital for 23 years, told WBZ-TV. 

"We don't want this for us, we certainly don't want this for our patients. We're hoping it doesn't happen. We want Brigham to come to the table, give us a contract that the nurses will ratify and let's go back to work and go back to taking care of our patients," she added. 

If both sides don't come to an agreement before Nov. 12, the nurses' union said this would be the largest open-ended nurses strike in Massachusetts history. 

"It is going to be huge. 4,000 nurses are going to be out of work for an indefinite amount of time. That impacts the patients who come and get their care at the Brigham and that's going to have a ripple effect over the city of Boston," said Kelly Morga, chair of the Brigham and Women's Hospital MNA Bargaining Committee, which represents the nurses. 

The union is asking the hospital for a cost-of-living adjustment, to address staffing shortages and healthcare benefits, and to protect patient care. 

Brigham and Women's nurses demonstrated a one-day strike back in July but were locked out for four additional days by the hospital, which said temporary replacement nurses were contracted for five days of work. 

"They gave us a little bit with the health insurance, they gave us a little bit with the traveler language. Nothing with cost-of-living increase," DeVincent said. 

Mass General Brigham released a statement saying, "While we had hoped to avoid another strike, we are prepared to continue providing safe, high-quality care throughout any work stoppage, building on our experience and extensive contingency planning." 

The nurses' union will return to negotiations with the hospital on Nov. 9.