Unionized nurses at Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton have announced that they intend to hold a strike authorization vote next month — the first step toward possibly walking off the job.
In a press release Thursday, the hospital’s nurses, who are unionized with the Massachusetts Nurses Association, said that they’ll vote on Oct. 9 to decide whether to give their elected bargaining committee the power to potentially call a one-day strike. That decision comes after nine months of bargaining with Cooley Dickinson leadership over what the nurses said are “unsafe staffing conditions, uncompetitive wages, and potential hikes to health insurance costs.”
Mass General Brigham, which owns Cooley Dickinson, “is the wealthiest hospital system in New England, and yet is refusing to provide the resources Cooley nurses and patients need,” Rosie Tottser, a nurse and the union’s co-chair, said in a statement. “We are seeking enforceable staffing protections, competitive pay, and affordable health insurance to protect our patients, retain nurses, and sustain our hospital.”
In a phone interview, intensive care unit nurse and fellow co-chair Aaron Winston said that the hospital has had difficulty retaining staff due to low pay and attrition from the COVID-19 pandemic. Some hospital units have had turnover as high as 60%, he said.
“When nurses are stretched thin … we have to rush and really scramble to make sure that we do right by our patients,” he said. “That’s an environment where, as you can imagine, bad things can happen to patients. If nurses are constantly strapped for time, details can get missed.”
Winston said that the union has prioritized making proposals at the bargaining table that would reduce staff turnover. However, he said that Mass General Brigham has proposed more expensive health care plans and redefining who is considered a full-time nurse.
“It’s been a very frustrating process when we go into a contract negotiation process, and rather than try to constructively address problems that are facing our facility, we have to fight tooth and nail to maintain the contractual benefits that we’ve relied on for a decade or so,” Winston said.
Winston and his colleagues say that Mass General Brigham has pulled in “enormous profits” in recent years but that instead of taking care of nurses in Northampton, the non-profit health system has spent millions on administrators’ salaries and expanding its facilities in Boston.
Mass General Brigham is spending more than $2 billion on expansions to two hospitals in Boston. The health system’s most recent tax filings show that President and CEO Anne Klibanski pulled in $8.4 million in compensation in 2023, and that the system paid $36.2 million in total compensation to just 22 current and former executives that year.
Cooley Dickinson itself made $9.7 million in “excess revenue” in fiscal year 2024 and $8.6 million in fiscal year 2025, according to data from the state’s Center for Health Information and Analysis.
“Cooley Dickinson is a small hospital in the Mass General health system, but the time is over that they can treat us like a backwater,” Winston said. “If they have the money to invest in Boston and to throw at their executives, they have the money to invest in the nurses of Cooley Dickinson and quality care for the people of Northampton and beyond.”
In a statement, Cooley Dickinson Chief Nursing Officer Chika Anueyiagu said that the hospital has been “negotiating with the union in good faith since January” and has participated in 17 bargaining sessions with the nurses.
“We have presented a fair and equitable proposal and reached agreement on many important issues,” the statement said. “Our focus remains on supporting our nurses while providing high-quality, safe care for our patients. If a strike were to be authorized by the MNA and were to take place, we are prepared to continue providing the excellent care our patients expect.”
Cooley Dickinson nurses held an informational picket in June and Winston said that nurses he speaks to at the workplace are feeling powerful.
“They’re fired up and want to really take this chance to advocate for themselves,” he said. “People are rightfully angry with how Mass General has treated us during this process.”
If nurses voted to authorize the one-day strike, the union’s bargaining team would then have to call for the strike to occur. Before doing so, though, by law the union would have to give 10 days notice to Cooley Dickinson.