Brigham Nurses Reject Mass General Brigham’s ‘Last, Best and Final’ Offer

More than 4,000 unionized nurses at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston have rejected Mass General Brigham’s “last, best and final” contract offer, the Massachusetts Nurses Association said on Friday, Oct. 23, 2026. The Brigham nurses contract vote ran Oct. 22 and 23 and closed at 8 p.m. Friday. The union did not release the tally. The result keeps a year-long labor dispute at one of Boston’s largest employers unresolved and leaves a possible strike on the table.

What the Brigham nurses contract vote means

The bargaining unit is the largest group of unionized nurses in Massachusetts, according to WBUR. The union and the hospital have been negotiating a new contract for about a year. With the offer rejected, the union said it has formally asked Mass General Brigham (MGB) to resume talks in the coming week.

Union leaders keep the authority to call another strike, but they must give the hospital 10 days’ notice, WBUR reported. As of Friday night, no strike date had been announced. The union had scheduled an open-ended strike for Oct. 14 and postponed it after the two sides reached the tentative terms that members have now voted down. The Boston Report covered that delay in our story on the postponed Brigham strike.

The wage gap at the center of the dispute

Both sides agreed on many provisions, and wages remained the main sticking point. Brigham nurses receive a 5% step increase each year on their hiring anniversary for their first 20 years of service. According to WBUR, the offer added 2.5% annual raises for two years for nurses at the top of the scale, but did not include the across-the-board raises the union wanted.

The Boston Globe reported that the union had earlier sought a 3% raise for the first six months of the contract and a 4% raise for the next 12 months. According to MGB, Brigham nurses start at $86,700 a year, and those with 20 years of service earn at least $220,000. MGB said 1,322 nurses, nearly a third of the unit, were at that top level.

The union has tied its wage demands to the cost of living in Greater Boston. Federal price data shows why the issue resonates: the Consumer Price Index for the Boston-Cambridge-Newton area stood at 362.575 in September 2026, up about 3.8% from 349.271 a year earlier, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data published on FRED.

How each side responded

“This vote shows the resolve of Brigham nurses, who are fighting for patient safety and for the professional respect we deserve,” said Kelly Morgan, a labor and delivery nurse who chairs the bargaining committee, in a union statement. She called on MGB to “return to the table ready to negotiate in good faith.”

MGB said it was “disappointed by the outcome.” The health system said the proposal included “meaningful compensation and benefit enhancements that kept Brigham nursing pay among the highest in the market.” It added that Brigham and Women’s “is prepared to maintain uninterrupted care and respond to any steps the union may take.”

A tense year for Boston’s largest private employer

The contract fight has run for about eight months of open conflict. Nurses held a one-day strike in July, and the hospital then kept them out for four more days because it said it had to give temporary replacement nurses five days of work. For the planned October walkout, the hospital had prepared to staff the Brigham with temporary workers again.

The vote also comes as MGB cuts costs. The system, which employs more than 80,000 people, began layoffs the week of Oct. 13 and has told department heads to trim budgets, a spokesperson told the Globe. It has not said how many jobs will be cut. Some pediatricians at Mass Eye and Ear were affected and were offered positions elsewhere in the system. Our Oct. 22 business report covered the layoffs.

Labor talks are also active elsewhere in Boston health care. WBUR noted that Boston Medical Center recently reached a deal with about 2,000 nurses represented by 1199SEIU, which avoided a potential three-day strike. For more coverage of employers and jobs in the region, see our Boston business and economy section.

Sources

• Massachusetts Nurses Association: Brigham nurses vote to reject MGB’s offer (Oct. 23, 2026)
• WBUR: Brigham nurses reject contract deal, call for return to bargaining table
• The Boston Globe: Brigham nurses vote to reject MGB contract offer
• CBS Boston: Brigham and Women’s nurses union rejects hospital’s offer
• The Boston Globe: Mass General Brigham makes layoffs for second time in two years
• FRED / BLS: Consumer Price Index, Boston-Cambridge-Newton (CUURA103SA0)

Photo: Brigham and Women’s Hospital entrance on Francis Street, Boston, by jimcintosh, via Wikimedia Commons (CC0).