The Massachusetts Nurses Association has filed a second federal unfair-labor-practice charge against Brigham and Women's Hospital, accusing management of retaliating against nurses for their July strike. The union filed the charge on August 3, alleging that the hospital changed weekend scheduling on one unit to punish nurses who exercised their right to strike [1].
The specific allegation, as the union describes it, centers on the hospital's 3BC medical intensive care unit. Management moved roughly 75 of the unit's 100 nurses from an every-third-weekend schedule to an every-other-weekend schedule, a change the MNA says came after the strike with no increase in patient demand or staffing need [1].
Kelly Morgan, a registered nurse who chairs the Brigham MNA bargaining committee, tied the change to seniority the nurses had already earned. "For years, nurses on this unit have earned every-third-weekend schedules through seniority. Many of these nurses have not been required to work every other weekend in more than a decade," she said [1].
The retaliation claim is the union's characterization, and it is now before the National Labor Relations Board, which will decide whether the schedule change was lawful. It follows a first charge the MNA filed on July 23, which alleged the hospital illegally prevented neonatal-intensive-care nurses from leaving to join the walkout when it began [1].
The dispute sits on top of a hard summer of labor conflict at the hospital. Nurses staged a one-day strike on July 8, and the hospital responded with a four-day lockout [1]. Bargaining is set to resume on August 6, with the scheduling charge and the earlier NICU charge both pending as the two sides return to the table [1].
