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More than 100 members of the striking Massachusetts Nurses Association made a symbolic effort to return to work at the Tufts Medical Center on Thursday, but they were rebuffed by security as the first nurses strike against a Boston hospital since 1986 turned into a lockout expected to last into Monday. The nurses union launched a one-day strike around 7 a.m. Wednesday, setting up a picket line that drew hundreds of union members along with political figures to the sidewalk outside the hospital on Washington Street in Boston’s Chinatown section. (Salinas and Sweeney, 7/12)

Hundreds of nurses lined the sidewalks in front of Tufts Medical Center Wednesday in what the union says is the largest nursing strike in Massachusetts history. It is also the first nurses strike in Boston in 30 years. (Bebinger, 7/12)

Nurses at a major Boston hospital went on strike Wednesday for the first time in three decades at a time of concerns nationally over labor costs at hospitals. Some 1,200 nurses at Tufts Medical Center staged a one-day strike over a contract dispute centered on the hospital’s efforts to alter retirement benefits by moving nurses who still have traditional pension plans into less costly 401 (k)-style accounts. (Levitz, 7/12)

In many cities, for patients needing complex medical care, Tufts Medical Center would be the only destination in town. But in Boston, a city rich with big hospitals, Tufts has long been overshadowed by larger competitors with more prestigious names and deeper pockets. The disparities between Tufts and its competitors have been thrown into sharp relief by an ugly labor dispute. On Wednesday, more than 1,200 members of the Massachusetts Nurses Association went on strike after the union and the hospital failed to come to terms on staffing levels, wages, and retirement benefits. (McCluskey, 7/12)