BMC South caregivers contend the administration's stance in the negotiations undermines the facility's ability to recruit and retain staff to ensure safe patient care in their chronically underserved community

BOSTON and BROCKTON, Mass., April 20, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- More than 475 registered nurses and healthcare professionals represented by the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA) at BMC South (formerly Good Samaritan Medical Center) have submitted the legally required 10-day notice of their intent to strike the Brockton-based facility from 7 a.m. on April 30 – 6:59 a.m. on May 3.

The notice to strike follows months of negotiations as talks for a new contract stalled  over the administration's poor staffing conditions that compromise the care of patients on a regular basis, and a dramatic shift of thousands of dollars of annual health insurance costs onto each insured staff member, which has led the union to file charges against BMC with the National Labor Relations Board for implementing those insurance cuts and cost increases without negotiating those changes as required by federal labor law.  These issues coupled with management's proposal for three years of wage increases lower than inflation and proposed cuts to staffing create fear that there will be a mass exodus of staff if these proposals were put into effect.

Prior to issuing the notice, nurses and healthcare professionals at BMC South as well as BMC Brighton cast respective votes to authorize the strike with more than 95 percent of staff supporting the action. While the BMC Brighton nurses and healthcare professionals were planning to issue a similar notice for a simultaneous strike over the same issues, the MNA members decided to delay the issuing of the notice in the wake of a recent fire at the facility, to prevent further disruption to patient care and to support the full restoration of services for their already beleaguered community.

The nurses and healthcare professionals of BMC South serve vulnerable communities with among the highest concentration of patients covered under Medicare and Medicaid, a population of often medically complex patients that require the staffing and resources to meet patients' needs.  These caregivers are concerned that without a contract that allows them to recruit and retain the staff needed to deliver appropriate care, the communities they serve will continue to suffer the consequences of decades of neglect.

"We do not want to strike," said Maureen Healey, BMC South RN and MNA committee co-chair. "But BMC management has left us with no other choice. They won't hear us. They don't believe us when we say that the contract improvements we are fighting for are necessary to keep patients safe. We want to be inside on April 30th caring for our patients, but if striking is the only way to get management to hear us and to take our issues seriously then we will be on the streets instead."

"When BMC management chooses cuts over care, we have no choice but to stand together for ourselves and our patients. Our notice of a strike makes it clear: we will not allow BMC's hardline positions to compromise patient safety or disrespect the hard work staff perform every day--the same staff who have stuck with their hospital through thick and thin," said Liz Erwin, RN, a long-time nurse at BMC South and co-chair of the local bargaining unit with the MNA. "We are not making this stand for ourselves alone—we are making this stand to protect our patients and our co-workers. Cutting staffing and benefits undermines patient safety, drives staff away from the bedside which prevents us from providing the care our communities rely on. With this decision, our members are saying enough is enough." 

Safe Staffing at the Heart of Nurses and Healthcare Professionals Fight

Adding insult to injury is the BMC South executives' daily refusal to follow already agreed upon staffing rules, which specify the number of nurses required for each unit, with specific limits on the number of patients a nurse can safely care for at one time.  This includes executives cancelling staff shifts when they are already below their staffing rules and when there are as many as 100 patients waiting for care in the emergency department.

Staff at BMC South have been documenting these conditions and have filed hundreds of official reports of incidents of unsafe staffing and degraded patient care because of management's refusal to staff consistent with the established rules and patient needs.  The MNA recently submitted official complaints with the Department of Public Health and the Federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) calling for an investigation, including 245 signed reports of unsafe staffing, with 71 instances where those conditions impeded the provision of care required for those patients. 

"BMC violates these safety standards on a daily basis, and does so deliberately, without regard for the impact it has on our patients' care," said Healey. "We have made it clear to BMC management that our members cannot and will not accept any contract that includes a reduction in our current staffing levels or that prevents us from being able to recruit and retain the staff we need to keep patients safe. To do this to our members, who have already sacrificed so much during the turmoil of the Steward crisis and stuck with this hospital to ensure the safety of our community adds further insult to the injury we have already suffered. And to do this to our patients is terrible, because without nurses, they are defenseless." 

All this follows years of sacrifice by all BMC South staff members to protect their community following the collapse of the Steward Healthcare system, as well as the closure of Norwood Hospital due to a flood in 2022 and the closure of Brockton Hospital after the fire in 2023.  These calamities resulted in the dedicated staff holding the line as more patients flooded their already understaffed emergency department, while staff struggled every day to keep their patients safe under the worst conditions.  Now, under new owners – who claim to center the care of vulnerable communities as their mission -- the staff hoped conditions would improve, but they have not. In fact, in too many cases conditions have worsened as BMC repeatedly fails to meet even the basic staffing needs required to provide patients with required care.

Staff report that  in the last two weeks, in the wake of a cyberattack at Brockton Hospital that closed its emergency department, it was the BMC South staff who once again stepped into the breach and valiantly took on the task of caring for hundreds of patients flooding their emergency department over several days. They did so while BMC left them deliberately understaffed, on the first day dealing with the onslaught of patients with only 12 nurses when the hospital staffing plan called for 17 nurses on a normal day.  More than 100 patients were seen that day, while patients waited almost eight hours to be seen. As a member of the MNA committee reported, she was getting texts from staff saying, "It's hell" and "We're getting demolished!" Yet in the aftermath of this disaster, BMC management has continued to bring in fewer staff than called for by the standard staffing plans.  This attitude of disrespect for the community and the staff that care for patients is both disappointing and unacceptable.  

BMC management's neglect also extends to proposed cuts in other essential services including the number of pharmacists available on every shift. The presence of pharmacists is essential to assist medical staff to ensure the safety of medication administration, including for newborns and critically-ill patients. A petition opposing the practice containing more than 300 signatures was delivered to BMC management, which included signatures from 35 physicians and the Medical Director.

Lack of Competitive Wage and Health Insurance Cuts Further Erode BMC Ability to Staff Safely

BMC South staff are being offered a wage package with across-the-board hikes that fail to keep pace with competitors, or with the increased cost of living, with soaring gas prices and inflation on the rise. And whatever increases have been proposed, those increases will be cancelled by the inflation rate and the increase in health insurance costs BMC has already forced upon the staff.

The new health insurance plan, which includes a $6,000 family deductible and an increase in all types of copays for insured staff, was implemented by BMC management prior to meeting the obligation to bargain the changes, which as stated earlier, is a violation of labor law. Now they want to lock in these enormous cost increases for the next three years.  

Staff Refuse to Buy BMC's Citing of Costs to Absorb the Facilities as Rationale for Stingy Offer

At the table and in the media, BMC has detailed millions of dollars in the cost to take over BMC
Brighton and BMC South as the rationale for their position at the table that has led to this strike notice.
This is despite having received close to $400 million in cash and loans from the state, while now seeking to take even more from their dedicated staff.

But the nurses and healthcare professionals point to many of the costs cited by BMC as one-time expenditures. They also point to state data that show that even under Steward ownership, prior to the bankruptcy crisis, the hospital for more than 12 years was operating at a profit margin much higher than the state average.  In fact, in one year the hospital was ranked first as the most profitable hospital in the state, while in other years it was ranked as the second, third and fourth most profitable hospital in the state (according to data from Center for Health Information and Analysis). Contact the MNA for a copy of a report detailing these findings. The nurses believe they are structurally capable of achieving similar success once again with a good faith investment by BMC in their staff and the vulnerable communities they serve.

BMC Brighton and South MNA Members Are Not Alone, As All BMC Unions are United in Call for Fair Contracts for All Workers and Caregivers

The nurses and healthcare professionals at BMC Brighton and South are not alone in their call for a fair contract, as 1199 SEIU, a union representing thousands of other workers throughout BMC has also issued a notice for their strike on May 1st.  In fact, all the unions representing several thousand workers in the BMC system have come together and formed the BMC Union Coalition, an unprecedented show of solidarity for both workers and the communities they serve.

The BMC Union Coalition represents more than 7,000 dedicated employees working at BMC affiliated facilities, including BMC Main Campus, BMC Brighton, BMC South, BMC Brockton Mental Health Center, and Boston Healthcare for the Homeless, who, according to a recent statement by the coalition "are committed to making the BMC facilities the best they can be for our patients and our communities.  We do so by holding our administration accountable for providing us with fair, equitable contracts that recognize the value of our work, and that provide us the resources to honor BMC's stated mission of delivering exceptional care without exception."

On April 2 a delegation of BMC staff from the coalition hand delivered a letter to the administration for the BMC system, stating in part: "All union members in the BMC Union Coalition support their siblings that have been in these prolonged negotiations and urge BMC management to reach settlement now. It is impossible to properly serve the most vulnerable in our communities if those who care for them are underserved. It is time for our administration to be fair to those who care."

Now that the strike notice has been delivered, the hope remains that the parties can come to a resolution to avert the need to strike with the next negotiation date set for April 22.  Barring a settlement, as specified in the MNA's official notice the strike will begin at 7 a.m. on April 30 and will end at 6:59 a.m. on May 3.

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Founded in 1903, the Massachusetts Nurses Association is the largest union of registered nurses in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Its 26,000 members advance the nursing profession by fostering high standards of nursing practice, promoting the economic and general welfare of nurses in the workplace, projecting a positive and realistic view of nursing, and by lobbying the Legislature and regulatory agencies on health care issues affecting nurses and the public.

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SOURCE Massachusetts Nurses Association