BOSTON, Governor Maura Healey has summoned the state’s largest health system and its striking nurses to the State House on Wednesday in an attempt to broker a new contract, according to the Massachusetts Nurses Association.
Thousands of Brigham nurses and supporters poured onto Francis Street near the hospital starting at 7 a.m., shaking cowbells, banging on plastic buckets and cheering at a deafening chorus of supportive honks from passing cars. The nurses, sporting “Union Strong” and “Brigham Nurses United” shirts, waved signs calling out management. “Value Nurses Like You Value Your Bonu$e$,” one sign read.
About 4,000 Brigham nurses walked off the job for one day as they fight with MGB over pay increases and insurance costs. The Brigham, a nationally renowned Harvard teaching hospital, and MGB have have unsuccessfully been negotiating a new contract for months. A separate group of 450 clinicians who visit patients at their homes under MGB Home Care also went on strike Wednesday, for seven days.
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