Faulkner Hospital nurses avert strike, reach tentative agreement

About 500 nurses at Faulkner Hospital had been planning a 24-hour strike on Oct. 1.

Nurses at Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital in Jamaica Plain are no longer planning to strike after reaching a tentative contract agreement with Mass General Brigham leadership last Thursday.

The agreement includes raises of 25% to 33% over three years, depending on an employee’s current pay level, according to the Massachusetts Nurses Association. The union represents 500 Faulkner nurses. The agreement must still be ratified by a vote of all the MNA members at Faulkner.

“We are incredibly proud of this contract agreement that reflects our priority of improving BWFH nurse staffing and making sure all of our patients get the care they deserve,” Kathy Glennon, a Faulkner nurse and co-chair of the MNA Bargaining Committee, said in a statement. “Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital nurses care deeply about our patients and our hospital. We owe our success to the unity our nurses have shown throughout this bargaining process.”

The nurses had been planning a one-day strike that would have taken place on Oct. 1. The strike was authorized by an overwhelming margin on July 25. The MNA and MGB had been negotiating since October 2023. A federal mediator was brought in to help resolve the situation earlier this year. During negotiations last week, the MNA provided management with a legally mandated strike notice.

The Faulkner nurses said they were fighting for pay equal to what nurses make at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. They accused MGB leadership of valuing Faulkner nurses less than other nurses in the same hospital system. This, they said, led to staffing shortages and decreased patient safety.

The new agreement does not bring the pay scale of Faulkner nurses up to the exact level of pay that Brigham and Women’s nurses earn. The Brigham and Women’s Hospital pay scale will be about $105 per hour by October 2025, an MNA spokesperson told The Boston Globe. The new agreement would bring the pay scale for Faulkner nurses up to $100 per hour by that time.

Currently, the Faulkner wage scale tops out at $78.85 per hour. The top of the Brigham and Women’s pay scale is $86.95, per the Globe.

“We are excited to announce this tentative agreement, reached due to the power and solidarity of Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital nurses,” Dan Rec, a Faulkner nurse and co-chair of the MNA Bargaining Committee, said in a statement. “We joined together for our patients, pushing MGB to invest more in BWFH nurses so the hospital can address nurses leaving and unsafe staffing conditions.”