Unionized nurses at Boston Medical Center Brighton voted to authorize a three-day strike in response to contract negotiations they say threaten key staffing and benefits at the hospital.

“We have made it clear to BMC management that our members cannot and will not accept any contract that includes a reduction in our current staffing levels or the loss of our benefits, which are key to our ability to retain and recruit the staff we need to meet the mission of this facility,” said Kate Cashman, a BMC nurse and MNA committee co-chair. “To do this to our members, who already sacrificed so much during the turmoil of the Steward crisis and stuck with this hospital to ensure the safety of our community just adds further insult to the injury we have already suffered.”

BMC Brighton staff with the Massachusetts Nurses Association, which represents 650 nurses at the hospital, voted 97% to voted to authorize the bargaining committee to schedule a three-day strike. T

he bargaining committee may schedule a strike at any point “depending on how BMC conducts itself in upcoming negotiations,” though the union is legally required to provide 10 days notice.

The strike authorization comes amid the nurses’ first contract negotiation since the hospital was bought by BMC. The facility was previously St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center, one of two hospitals BMC acquired from Steward Health Care before the system went bankrupt and sold off or closed nine hospitals in Massachusetts.

The nurses union argued BMC received over $760 million from the state to support the hospital after the Steward transfer, but management is looking to “gut” key staffing and benefits in the nurses contract negotiations.

Negotiations began on Sept. 10 and have lasted through six sessions, including two involving a federal mediator, the union said.

BMC did not respond to a request for comment as of Monday evening.

The MNA representatives listed “takeaways” of the proposal from BMC management, including provisions they say eliminate charge nurses without assignment, nix the option of a pension for those not already enrolled, cut vacation and sick time benefits, and increase health insurance costs.

The hospital system also proposed a 0% raise for the next three years, with the exception for a 1% raise annually for nurses at the top step of the 19-step wage scale, the nurses said.

The result, MNA stated, would be a “net cut in earnings of thousands of dollars a year for most nurses.”

The nurses’ dispute comes as 100 non-RN healthcare professionals at the hospital also voted to join the union and are in the midst of bargaining their first contract.

Related Articles

Worried about health insurance costs? There may be cheaper options — but with trade-offs

Out-of-pocket pain from high-deductible plans means skimping on care

How delays and bankruptcy let a nursing home chain avoid paying settlements for injuries and deaths

These are Americans’ biggest priorities for the government in 2026, according to a new poll

Judge says he’ll rule in May on Luigi Mangione’s fight to exclude evidence from NY murder trial

In a letter signed by 80% of nurses and sent to the hospital’s CEO in September, the staff said they have been through “hell at St. Elizabeth’s/BMC-Brighton,” citing Steward’s mismanagement during COVID and opioid crises.

“We will stand together to bring back affordable, accessible health insurance, competitive wages, and to fight against any efforts to take away benefits, just as we stood up for each other and for our patients against the tides of Cerberus, Steward, catastrophes, with inadequate equipment and supplies, deliberately unsafe staffing and pandemics,” the nurses stated. “We will make this the best hospital it can be to practice our professions and to heal our community.”

The next bargaining session is scheduled for Jan. 5.