Hundreds of nurses at Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital in Boston’s Jamaica Plain neighborhood voted to authorize a one-day strike.
For 10 months, they have been negotiating with Mass General Brigham leaders for a new contract …
Massachusetts
Sunny and warm weekend ahead: Pleasant air and clear skies expected
The drier air came rushing in Thursday night after the downpours moved out. We’re in the pleasant air through the weekend with plenty of sun and warm temperatures and we’ll do our best to match last weekend’s gorgeousness.
On…
2 Mass. gymnasts competing in their first Olympics
Two gymnasts from Massachusetts are competing in their first Olympics in Paris, poised to help the U.S. men’s team do something it hasn’t done since 2008.
Stoughton native Fred Richard and Worcester native Stephen Nedoroscik have both been dreaming of becoming Olympians since they were little.
When he was a middle school student in Stoughton, Richard was named most likely to become an Olympian. Six years later, that dream came true. He spoke with NBC10 Boston after he learned he made it onto Team USA at the gymnastics trials.
“Honestly, I think tonight was all about, like, gratitude and gratefulness,” he said. “Remembering my younger self and how proud he would be for me to be in this position today.”
He’s been working towards this moment almost his whole life, starting gymnastics at the age of 2.
He says he hopes his success can help open doors for more kids to try the sport.
“When I leave the sport, which is like in 10 years, I want there to be 20 times more kids in the sport,” Richard said. “I want way more gyms, I want way more Black kids in the gym, and I just want kids to know that, like, the highest level of gymnastics is just similar to the highest level of basketball or football, you know, you can be a star.”
His love for gymnastics exudes through his social media, where he invites people into his world.
Becoming an Olympian is also a childhood dream come true for Nedoroscik.
“People told me, ‘One day, you’re going to be an Olympian!’ and you know, back then, I was just a dorky little kid, and now look at me, I’m a dorky adult,” he said. “Going to the Olympics!”
Since high school, Nedoroscik has dedicated himself to one event — the pommel horse — becoming one of the best athletes in the world on the apparatus.
“There’s something freeing about pommel horse for me, I’ve always kind of had that knack for it, where I’ve had, like, a decent swing,” he said. “The thing about pommel horse is it’s one of the events where, like, you can kind of make a skill within a week of doing it, but to perfect the skill, it takes like two years … It’s one of those things that’s just like a very long and hard journey, but like, at the end of it, it’s super fulfilling.”
The four-time national pommel horse champion brings expertise on an event that is notoriously difficult, but Nedoroscik remains humble about his talent and the dedication it takes to bet on yourself and succeed.
Nedoroscik and Richard hope to help the U.S. men’s gymnastics squad win their first team medal since Beijing in 2008.
Faulkner Hospital nurses vote to authorize strike
Nurses at Faulkner Hospital voted Thursday to authorize a strike, joining nurses at Brigham and Women’s who took a similar vote one night earlier.
In another blow to hospital administration, nurses at Faulkner, part of the Brigham and Women’s system, were almost unanimous in their vote — 341 yes and just one no.
This will impact about 500 members of the Massachusetts Nurses Association, many of whom are making their intentions clear this evening: That they are prepared to strike if Mass General Brigham does not settle a new contract.
They’ve been in negotiations for the past 10 months.
The union is primarily asking for competitive wages to keep staff from going to other hospitals, as well as better safety measures.
On Wednesday, thousands of nurses in the same union at Brigham and Women’s Hospital voted by a 2,507-16 margin to authorize a one-day strike, as well.
If health care workers at both hospitals decide to move forward with strikes, it could impact about 4,500 nurses in total.
Nurses have to give the hospital system a 10-day notice if they plan to hit the picket line.
“We are ecstatic that we are hopefully going to tell management that we are strong as a union and that we are here for our patients,” said Dan Rec, a nurse at Faulkner. “That’s our big thing, right? We are looking for retention and we are looking for recruitment.”
“It’s hard every day to go in and know that we’re going – we’re doing the work of two people because we’re down how many nurses every day,” added Faulkner nurse Janet Donovan. “It’s a revolving door, and it’s not pretty.”
“Progress has been made on several topics and we have presented a fair, equitable proposal,” a Mass General Brigham spokesperson said in a statement to NBC10 Boston Thursday night. “Our focus remains on supporting our nurses while providing high-quality, safe care for our patients. If a strike takes place, we are positioned to continue to provide the care our patients expect.”
A contract negotiation is scheduled next month. If an agreement is not reached by then, a possible date for a strike would likely be set.
New dessert spot opens in Brookline’s Washington Square
[This story first appeared on Boston Restaurant Talk.]
A new spot for sweet treats has debuted in Brookline.
According to a poster (Geoff Wong) within the Friends of Boston’s Hidden Restaurants Facebook group page, Oasit’s Sweet…
Man killed in shooting at his Brockton home, DA says
A man was killed in an overnight shooting at his home in Brockton, Massachusetts, late Wednesday, officials said.
Romualdy Pierre-Charles, 22, was found outside the home on Vesey Street, between French Avenue and Echo Street, after police were…
