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Resident physicians and fellows at Cambridge Hospital ratified a new contract with Cambridge Health Alliance on Friday after six months of negotiations.
About 99 percent of the doctors — who are represented by the Committee of Interns and Residents, a local branch of the Service Employees International Union — voted in favor of the new contract, which grants residents and fellows a 20.5 and 17 percent increase in salary, respectively.
“An improvement in pay allows us to actually live in the community that we’re serving, and I think we’re really hoping to be able to be in close proximity to our patients,” Justin W. Halloran, a CHA resident and CIRSEIU regional vice-president, said.
Alongside wage increases, the contract also offers increased educational stipends, new committees for mental health and workload relief, and pay for “excessive night shifts among internal medicine doctors,” according to a press release from the union.
“We’re cautiously optimistic that we found a way to meet both our needs for mental health as well as the hospital’s needs for coming up with a sustainable structure for that,” Halloran said.
Halloran said the union is also “looking forward” to expanding the diversity of residents at the hospital, pointing specifically to a new benefit that gives residents“protective time for religious holidays.”
“I think it will just make it easier for us to attract a talented, diverse resident group,” Halloran said.
“We value the tremendous contributions our resident physicians and interns make to patient care, and we are happy to come to an agreement for a new contract with them,” David Cecere, a spokesperson for CHA, wrote in an emailed statement to The Crimson.
During the six months of contract negotiations, residents and fellows held two major rallies: one outside Cambridge Hospital on Aug. 28, and another at Cambridge City Hall on Oct. 1. The City Hall rally specifically supported a resolution urging CHA to reach a contract with the union, which the City Council ratified.
“There’s been a lot of energy that has come from our resident community,” Halloran said. “That energy has manifested in the desire to get a closer deal done faster, and I think that HR was responsive to the things that they heard.”
—Staff writer Aran Sonnad-Joshi can be reached at aran.sonnad-joshi@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @asonnadjoshi.
—Staff writer Sheerea X. Yu can be reached at sheerea.yu@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @_shuhree_.
