About 4,000 nurses at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston plan to begin an open-ended strike at 7 a.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 14, after the Massachusetts Nurses Association delivered a strike notice on Friday, Oct. 2. Unlike July's one-day walkout, this strike has no scheduled end date and would continue until a contract agreement is reached, Boston 25 News reported. The union is calling it an unfair labor practice strike, citing federal labor complaints it has filed since July.
For families, the question has shifted. It is no longer whether a strike could happen, but whether a surgery, prenatal visit, infusion, or follow-up booked for mid-October will go ahead. An open-ended timeline makes that harder to plan around.