WBUR TODAY: Nurses on strike
❤️ Donate Wednesday, July 8, 2026 ☀️ Sunny, with a high near 82. Good Morning Boston, It's Quock Walker Day today in Massachusetts — named after the man whose 1781 lawsuit helped abolish slavery in the state. Listen to this interview on WBUR's Morning Edition to learn how the case became a national model . But first, the news: On the picket line: More than 4,000 nurses at Brigham and Women's Hospital are away from the bedside and officially on strike this morning. It's the largest nurses strike in Massachusetts history — and the state's first nurses strike since 2022 . Let's go over a few basic questions about the strike and its impacts with the help of WBUR health reporter Priyanka Dayal McCluskey: Why are they striking? The biggest sticking point is wages. Brigham nurses get 5% "step" increases every year for their first 20 or so years on the job. On top of that, they've also traditionally received cost-of-living raises. But hospital offic...