Largest Nurse and Healthcare Professional Strike in Massachusetts History Begins Wednesday After MGB Refuses to Negotiate with Brigham Nurses and MGB Home Care Clinicians

BOSTON, July 6, 2026 /PRNewswire/ —

MEDIA INFORMATION

On Wednesday, July 8, all media are encouraged to visit both strikes at the below locations. For media interview requests, contact Joe Markman, jmarkman@mnarn.org, 781-571-8175.
Brigham and Women’s Hospital (Primary Media Location)
75 Francis Street, Boston
Best times: 7am when the strike starts, 12pm rally

MGB Home Care (Primary Media Location)
Braintree Hill Office Park, 45 Rockdale St., Suite 100, Braintree MA (clinicians to picket at main intersection at bottom of the office park)
Best times: 8am when strike starts and throughout the day
Contact Jen Johnson, jjohnson@mnarn.org
Additional strike locations, schedules, media advisories, background materials, photos, social media, and updates are available at: www.massnurses.org/MGB.

The elected nurse leaders of more than 4,000 registered nurses at Brigham and Women’s Hospital represented by the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA) delivered a letter to the Mass General Brigham (MGB) Board of Directors placing responsibility for the largest nurse and healthcare professional strike in Massachusetts history scheduled to start July 8 squarely on the board and the executives it oversees.

“As the elected Chair and Vice Chair of the 4,000 registered nurses at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, we are writing to tell you that this strike and lockout is your responsibility,” wrote Kelly Morgan, RN, Chair of the Brigham MNA Bargaining Committee, and Jim McCarthy, RN, Vice Chair, in their July 3 letter to Board Chairman Scott Sperling and fellow board members. The letter was also sent to CEO Anne Klibanksi, who made $8.4 million in 2024.

The letter contrasts the backgrounds of many board members in private equity, venture capital, investment management, and billion-dollar corporations with the daily reality of bedside nurses caring for patients through trauma, cancer, organ transplants, childbirth, and medical emergencies. It calls on the board to intervene after more than eight months of negotiations failed to produce meaningful movement from hospital executives.

In an emailed response on Sunday evening, Board Chair Sperling, Co-CEO of a private equity firm, wrote that “substantial efforts that have been made to find common ground.” MGB has, in fact, refused to find common ground. They have declined to move off their 0% cost of living wage offer for months. On June 2, MGB representatives told nurses they would not change their last proposal and negotiate ahead of the strike, even though nurses offered to compromise.

Last week, both Brigham nurses and MGB Home Care clinicians held their final scheduled bargaining sessions. At both bargaining tables, the nurses and clinicians made significant efforts to compromise and offered to continue negotiating to avoid a strike. MGB refused to improve its proposals and declined opportunities to continue bargaining.

Brigham nurses will begin a one-day strike Wednesday before being subjected to a four-day lockout imposed by Mass General Brigham. MGB Home Care clinicians will begin a seven-day strike the same day.

“A healthcare system with $35.8 billion in assets and $2.4 billion in net gains last year is telling the nurses who generate its success that they deserve nothing to keep pace with the cost of living,” Morgan and McCarthy wrote in their letter. “Your decision is not based on financial necessity. It is a choice. You have chosen executive compensation instead of investing in the permanent nursing workforce.”

Morgan and McCarthy concluded their letter by urging the board to exercise its authority to direct executives to settle fair contracts: “As members of the Board of Directors, you have the authority to instruct MGB executives to negotiate seriously and settle a fair contract. We urge you to lead this institution the way a healthcare system should be led: with patients, caregivers, and the community at the center of every decision.”

MORE INFORMATION: WWW.MASSNURSES.ORG/MGB

MassNurses.org │ Facebook.com/MassNurses │ Twitter.com/MassNurses │ Instagram.com/MassNurses 

Founded in 1903, the Massachusetts Nurses Association is the largest union of registered nurses in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Its 26,000 members advance the nursing profession by fostering high standards of nursing practice, promoting the economic and general welfare of nurses in the workplace, projecting a positive and realistic view of nursing, and by lobbying the Legislature and regulatory agencies on health care issues affecting nurses and the public.

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SOURCE Massachusetts Nurses Association