RNs at Brigham & Women’s ratify new two-year contract

The registered nurses at Brigham & Women’s Hospital (BWH) voted on Dec. 12 to ratify a new two-year contract that includes a number of provisions, including landmark contract language to protect newly licensed nurses, language to protect the union rights of nurses, and pay increases that will make the BWH RNs among the highest paid nurses in the state.

The bargaining unit expects that these new provisions will help the hospital with both the recruitment and retention of nurses— issues that were having a significant impact on the hospital’s staffing levels prior to the contract’s ratification.

“We are proud of this agreement as it is the result of our membership’s willingness to take a stand for their patients and their profession,” said Barbara Norton, RN and chair of the nurses’ local bargaining unit. “The nurses spoke and the hospital was forced to finally listen to us. As a result, nurses are assured that they will continue to have the legal right to advocate for their patients; our new nurses will not be forced to practice beyond their level of experience; and this hospital will have a pay scale to compete for the best nursing talent to provide the excellent care the Brigham has long been known for. We hope management continues to listen to its nurses and uses this agreement as a foundation for much needed improvements in staffing, which was always the ultimate goal of these negotiations.”

The two-year agreement runs from October 2006 to October 2008. The pact includes the following key provisions:

• Protection of union rights. The nurses won contract language that protects union rights for nurses at the facility and their ability to advocate for patients. The language, the first of its kind in New England, prevents the hospital from exploiting a recent controversial ruling by the National Labor Relations Board, which found that charge nurses (nurses who oversee the flow of patients on a floor) or nurses who perform charge duties may be classified as supervisors, and are thereby ineligible for union membership. The new language clearly recognizes the union rights of all nurses in the union.
• Protecting newly licensed nurses. The nurse won landmark restrictions on the responsibilities of newly licensed and newly hired nurses, requiring that nurses have at least 18 months experience before being asked to take on additional responsibilities such as being placed in charge of a patient unit or to be asked to precept another nurse.
• Industry-leading wages. The new contract includes across the board pay increases of 3 percent per year for each year of the contract, with a new 5 percent step at the top of the salary scale in the first year of the contract while also increasing the starting pay for nurses by 5 percent. As a result, at the end of the agreement nurses’ pay will range from $29.31 per hour at the bottom of the pay scale up to $60.98 an hour at the top, which will make the nurses among the highest paid in Massachusetts.

Protection of sick time benefits. The hospital removed a number of proposals to restrict nurses’ sick time benefits. The 2,700 nurses of BWH, who are represented by the MNA, began negotiations on July 13, 2006 with a total of 11 negotiating sessions held before a tentative agreement was reached during a 14-hour negotiating session on Nov. 20. The settlement followed an historic 95 percent vote by nurses to authorize a strike, the largest nurses’ strike vote in the state’s history.