Nurses picketed at BMC in July before authorizing a strike to secure better working conditions, including restrictions on travel nurses, affordable health care premiums and fair wages.

Fighting for a contract that addresses chronic understaffing, patient safety, and low wages, nurses at Boston Medical Center have voted to authorize a 3-day strike if necessary as negotiations continue for a fifth month.

Last week, nearly all union-represented BMC nurses voted to authorize a strike, across two unions’ respective votes.

Roughly 90 percent of the 2,280 BMC nurses represented by 1199SEIU United Health care Workers East and 94 percent of the 160 BMC nurses represented by the Massachusetts Nurses Association voted in favor.

The South End teaching hospital and satellite behavioral health center in Brockton serves and employs high numbers of Black, Latino and immigrant residents. It is known as the Boston area’s safety net hospital, with many patients facing housing, food, and income insecurity or substance use disorders. At the same time, the system offers the lowest wages for nurses in the state.

BMC nurses, who have decried poor wages for decades, are advocating for fair compensation and health care premiums as well as regulations for the use of travel nurses and AI tools in the clinical setting. A proposed spousal surcharge would increase premiums about $300 per month for employees who have spouses insured on their health plan.

Over the summer, over 1,000 nurses picketed across two days, hoping to avoid a strike amid ongoing contract negotiations. The bargaining committee must legally provide a 10-day notice before a strike, no such notice has been issued yet.

“It feels very empowering to not just me, but for the entirety of BMC … It really feels like we have a voice in the matter,” said Sandeep Chakravarthy, an intensive care unit nurse who has worked as staff within the BMC system for four years.

To afford living in Boston while working at BMC, many early career nurses have dropped hours and taken shifts at more lucrative gigs like home health care.

“The strike authorization is really about the future of care at BMC … We are still the lowest paid nurses in Boston, and even though BMC is a safety net hospital, they really use that as an excuse to sort of discount nursing labor. Overall, we deserve better,” Chakravarthy continued.

Chakravarthy, who previously served as a travel nurse at what was formerly St. Elizabeth’s, now BMC Brighton, reflected on the point to restrict travel nurses in the new contract. The issue, he explained, is less about travel nurses in and of themselves — a reality across hospital systems facing labor shortages — but more about an overreliance and lack of regulation that can make conditions precarious for staff and patients.

Under the current contract, travel nurses can serve in supervising or teaching positions as precept or charge nurses, despite having minimal training and in some cases having never worked in hospitals that serve the vulnerable patient populations BMC does.

“There’s a huge disconnect … We’re not getting the wages that we need, but you’re spending four times that to pay for a temporary travel nurse in the hospital. It just doesn’t make sense to any nurse that you’re talking to,” he added.

In negotiations, bargaining committee members have been able to cap travel nurses at 40 hours weekly.

On Wednesday, September 23 nurses met with state and local elected officials to discuss their contract fight and put pressure on legislators and the hospital system. The next bargaining meeting will be Friday, September 25.

“MNA nurses stand in solidarity with our fellow 1199SEIU nurses and all our fellow health care workers and are sending a clear message to BMC: The hospital cannot continue to underpay the staff who care for some of the sickest and most vulnerable patients in our community,” Sue Sirrico, RN, chair of the Massachusetts Nurses Association’s negotiating committee, said in a statement.

Though union nurses remain concerned that BMC will not yet include contract provisions assuring AI tools will not supercede a clinical team’s decision making or change staffing ratios, the hospital system maintains the contract on the table “is market-competitive, meaningfully increases wages, and reflects the value we place on our nursing team.”

“Under our proposal, all RNs would receive wage increases of 10 to 20 percent over the next two years, with the majority of step-eligible Staff RNs receiving 15 to 20 percent, putting BMC at or above many local hospitals. We remain committed to reaching an agreement that is financially sustainable and supports the patients and communities we serve long term,” BMC continued in a statement to the Banner.