Read our editorial on the significance of strikes here.
Over 4,000 nurses at Brigham and Women’s Hospital voted near-unanimously to go on a one-day strike on July 8.
The hospital has responded to the strike with a four-day lockout, saying that the travel nurses, whom they are hiring to scab, require a five-day minimum contract. The Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA), which represents the nurses, said they will continue picketing during the lockout.
The most recent contract proposed by the hospital does not include a raise and requires nurses to pay 2.5% more for certain health insurance plans.
Nurses told The Worker that their main demands are pay raises to keep up with inflation, a better health insurance plan, and better conditions for both staff and patients.
Brigham and Women’s Hospital is part of Mass General Brigham (MGB), the seventh-richest hospital system in the country with nearly $36 billion in assets, according to Becker’s Hospital Review. Its nonprofit status allows it to avoid paying taxes while reaping massive profits.
Like other healthcare monopolies, MGB’s Board of Directors is comprised of millionaire and billionaire executives in the finance, real estate, pharmaceutical, and weapons industries, including Lockheed Martin CEO James D. Taiclet and Jonathan Kraft of the Kraft Group, a top donor to the US-Israel genocide.
The hospital’s proposed pay cuts coincide with rising inflation resulting from the general economic crisis of imperialism, exacerbated by the US war against Iran from which MGB’s monopolist board has directly profited.
The proposed insurance premium increase comes after the health insurance plans that the hospital conceded to in the last contract were found to violate state law. The plans require nurses to pay up to thousands of dollars in tax penalties, according to the union.
Nurses also report dangerous working conditions for both staff and patients.
Nurses told The Worker one staff member was repeatedly whipped with the end of a charger by a patient to the point of serious injury, a nurse was choked against the wall, and another nurse was punched in the face. According to the nurses, hospital management doesn’t do anything to ensure staff safety, keeping such incidents under wraps.
“Nurses are assaulted all the time, and you never hear about it,” a nurse said.
Conditions are also worsening for patients. One nurse said that MGB had eliminated nighttime chaplain visits for dying people, replacing them with texting or FaceTime. “Do people not die at night?” she asked.
Another problem is the staff-to-patient ratios and the large number of inexperienced staff due to the high turnover rate. Nurses say they work 12-hour shifts without being able to eat or use the bathroom. Extremely sick patients are left without attending nurses at times, and nurses have inadvertently administered medicine incorrectly due to exhaustion and high workload.
MGB has taken advantage of the limited-duration strike through a lockout, which nurses have said the monopoly has been preparing for some time. Nurses told The Worker that MGB put out advertisements for traveling nurses back in March to prepare to fight against the union and break any potential strike. In addition, managers plan to replace the striking workers themselves by “pretending to be nurses.”
While the union said it will continue to picket during the lockout, a limited strike instead of an indefinite strike means a loss of momentum for nurses, who will have to restart the process of voting to authorize the strike and give notice to the monopoly, during which time the monopoly can continue its preparations against the strike.
Around 450 MNA home health clinicians negotiating their first contract with Mass General Brigham (MGB) have authorized a seven-day strike, also starting on July 8. The combined strikes are the largest nurse and healthcare professional strikes in Massachusetts history, according to the union.
“Nurses are striking across the country,” one nurse said. “Do you not wonder why?”
Image: Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, MA. Credit: Jim McIntosh.
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