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More than 100 Mass General Brigham residents and affiliates gathered in two Boston locations on Monday to rally in support of physicians’ fair contracts.
The rallies — which took place in Cardinal Cushing Memorial Park near Massachusetts General Hospital and in front of Shapiro Cardiovascular Center at Brigham and Women’s Hospital — protested the delay in negotiations for a contract between Mass General Brigham and its union, MGB Housestaff United.
Rally attendees marched with signs that read “we can’t eat prestige” and “MGB doesn’t give an IVF” and gathered to listen to speeches by Mass General Brigham residents, organizers, and Boston city councilors.
The residents and fellows in the Mass General Brigham system voted to unionize as MGB Housestaff United in June 2023 as a chapter of the Committee of Interns and Residents, a local of the Service Employees International Union.
In September 2023, the union filed an unfair labor practice against the MGB system alleging that the hospital retaliated against residents for unionizing by cutting department-specific stipends for professional costs.
“MGB has not been negotiating our contract in good faith, and what that means is they are not meeting us anywhere — part way — for what we’re asking for,” Mass General Hospital internal medicine resident Sarah H. Brown said in an interview with The Crimson after the rally.
“We are committed to bargaining in good faith to reach a fair, equitable contract that supports our trainees and our patients. We want to assure patients and families that they will be able to access the hospital without interruption during this time,” Cassandra M. Falone, a spokesperson media specialist for Brigham and Women’s Hospital wrote in an emailed statement.
In her speech during the rally, Brown slammed the hospital for dragging its feet in providing a fair contract for union members.
“While we have dedicated our lives to caring for others, MGB has utterly failed to care for us,” Brown said in her speech. “MGB executives have the power and the vast financial resources to provide a fair contract to us — to CIR resident and fellow physicians — yet they are choosing not to.”
MGB Housestaff United’s demands include fair wages, childcare benefits and support, restoration of educational stipends, and access to primary care and healthcare, according to Brown. The union is also seeking coverage for fertility treatment, including in vitro fertilization.
“Non-traditional couples don’t get any funding for fertility,” pathology resident Lee P. Richman, a member of the union bargaining committee who served on the organizing committee prior to unionization, said in an interview with The Crimson after the event.
Residents who want to delay having children but “preserve their fertility” to minimize the risks of having children at an older age “don’t get any support for that,” he said.
“Many residencies do get that,” he added.
“It’s been a struggle since we got there, unfortunately,” Richman said. “The other side of the table, my impression is that they really wanted to enshrine the status quo in a contract and not give us anything more.”
Some members hope that a successful contract negotiation by MGB Housestaff United — the largest medical resident union in the country — will have a ripple effect for other similar unions.
“One win lifts all boats,” Richman said. “All residents in Boston are massively overworked and massively underpaid. And so if we win strongly, then when they go to the bargaining table, they can win strongly.”
Alongside the residents, members of Committee of Interns and Residents and the Boston City Council — including Council President Ruthzee Louijeune — were also in attendance at the rallies.
“Once we get this contract secured, every other residency training program in the country will follow because you guys are setting a standard,” A. Taylor Walker, the national president of CIR, said in her speech.
Sharon Durkan — a Boston city councilor who attended the rally at MGH— emphasized the need for a contract in an interview with The Crimson before the rally.
“Our healthcare community is really the one that steps forward when we need them,” Durkan said. “I think just as a reciprocal to that, we need to step forward for them too.”
Christopher S. Schenck — a MGH internal medicine resident and member of the MGB union bargaining team — said in an interview with The Crimson before the rally they will “continue this fight as long as it takes to get a fair contract.”
“As a trainee here, I really feel like our life depends on a fair contract,” Schenck said.
—Staff writer Veronica H. Paulus can be reached at veronica.paulus@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @VeronicaHPaulus.
—Staff writer Aran Sonnad-Joshi can be reached at aran.sonnad-joshi@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @asonnadjoshi.
