Thousands of nurses at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston returned to work early Monday morning, marking an end to the largest nurses strike in Massachusetts history.
But five days after 4,000 nurses declared a one-day strike over higher wages, nurses are expressing concern as they walk off the picket line still without a contract.
“It’s exciting, but also frightening,” said Christine Forgeron, a cardiac nurse at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “I don’t know what to expect when we go back to our patients, what happens next, because we still don’t have a contract is the most unsettling part.”
The Massachusetts Nurses Association initially authorized the strike for one day, but hospital management extended the work stoppage, keeping nurses off the job for five additional days. The hospital brought in 1,300 replacement nurses to cover shifts.
The nurses continued to picket outside of the hospital each day — and some overnight — until they could return to work on Monday.
“This is so emotional and so overwhelming,” said Jen DeVincent, an MNA union representative and labor and delivery nurse at Mass General Brigham. “There’s not even words for how unified and supportive these nurses have been of each other. We are so supportive of each other, and this has brought us so close together.”
The strike followed seven months of labor negotiations between the union and Mass General Brigham, which operates the hospital. Both sides have been stuck on wages, health care contributions and more investment in permanent staff instead of temporary travel nurses.
Nikki Murdock, a postpartum nurse at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, said she feels anxious for her colleagues who are returning to work because nobody knows what they are walking into.
“The people [replacement nurses] that are there are nurses, but they haven’t been trained to the Brigham way of doing things with policies and procedures and the type of care that is needed for each type of patient,” said Murdock, who returns to work Monday night. “It’s a little daunting to think what you might walk into.”
Murdock said it also feels overwhelming going back to work without a contract.
“If we need to do it again, I would do it again because we ultimately just want to be respected,” she said.
Murdock adds that a lot of her colleagues have said they don’t feel safe working in their departments.
“They don’t feel supported by the hospital sometimes for safety reasons, so getting that taken care of...,” she trailed off.
In a statement, a spokesperson said the hospital system values its nurses and remains “committed to reaching fair and responsible agreements that recognize their essential contributions while sustaining our ability to care for the patients and communities who rely on us.”
Noonan, who is also a MNA representative, said he’s concerned returning to work without a contract will feel uncomfortable for his colleagues.
“But it’s not a situation we created. We were forced into the situation,” he said. “They pushed too hard and we walked.”
Noonan said now “it’s business as usual” since nurses are back at work, but he hasn’t heard anything from Mass General Brigham about setting up their next bargaining sessions to arrive at a contract.
“I certainly do hope management understands that we’re willing to do this for our patients and for what we believe to be right and necessary,” he said. “We will do it again if we’re forced to.”
The transition this morning marking the end of the work stoppage went “smoothly and successfully,” a Mass General Brigham spokesperson said in a statement.
“BWH underwent careful and comprehensive planning to guarantee nursing coverage in every area of our hospital throughout the transition and ensure care for our patients and a safe and coordinated handoff for our nursing teams in the best interest of our patients and the care they trust us with,” a spokesperson said.
Mass General Brigham has also attended more than 20 bargaining sessions since November 2025 and that nurses already receive a 5% raise each year for 20 years, according to the statement.
Separate from the nurse strike, roughly 450 Mass General Brigham home care clinicians also walked off the job last week, with their strike expected to end Tuesday evening, according to the MNA.
