More Than 200 Mass General Brigham Residents Protest Contract Delays

Hundreds of Mass General Brigham Housestaff United physicians and local advocates rallied at two Boston hospitals on Thursday in favor of a new contract.

MGB Housestaff United, a local affiliate of the Service Employees International Union’s Committee for Residents and Interns, represents more than 2,000 resident physicians and fellows working for Mass General Brigham. The rally was also attended by workers from other unions and groups in the Boston area, including the Massachusetts Nurses Association and the new unionization effort from primary care physicians at MGB.

The protestors gathered in two locations near Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital to rally against delays in contract negotiations between MGB and the union’s bargaining unit. MGB Housestaff United, which voted to unionize in June 2023, also previously held a similar Unity Break rally in September.

“We’re tired of being cheap labor,” Lee P. Richman, a pathology resident and member of MGB Housestaff United’s bargaining committee, said in a speech at the rally. “We make the profits that this hospital generates, and all we’re asking for is fair compensation for our labor.”

An MGB spokesperson wrote in an emailed statement to The Crimson that “we have the highest respect for our trainees and value the many contributions they make in the care of our patients during their education here at our hospitals.”

“We are committed to bargaining in good faith to reach a fair, equitable contract that supports our trainees and patients,” the spokesperson wrote. “Patients and families can be assured that they can access the hospital as usual and there is no interruption to hospital operations, and we respect the union’s right to hold the informational picket.”

One of the union’s main bargaining priorities is a wage increase for residents and fellows at MGB, which members say is necessary to offset the high cost of living in Boston. The union is also bargaining for benefits including fertility treatment.

“Proposing raises that don’t even cover inflation is unacceptable and offensive,” Thomas P. Howard III, an oncology resident on the bargaining team, said at the event. “Providing fertility coverage to physicians in training who gave the best years of their reproductive lives to MGB is a moral imperative.”

“We’ve been at this with MGB for a year and over 20 bargaining sessions,” he added.

Howard claimed that without a contract and improved working conditions, MGB will lose out on future crops of medical students applying to residency programs.

“Am I going to look a young female medical student in the eye and say that MGB cares about you and this is the place?” he said. “I don’t think I will. To be the best requires investing in the best, and in a healthcare system, that should include its doctors.”

Speakers also said pay and benefits for doctors translated into better care for patients.

“MGB administrators, please understand that we’re the ones who give the care,”said Benjamin J. Kerman, an MGB primary care physician seeking unionization. “If we’re happy, the patients are happy. If you take good care of your employees, your employees take good care of patients.”

“They should not take any of us for granted,” he added.

—Staff writer Aran Sonnad-Joshi can be reached at aran.sonnad-joshi@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @asonnadjoshi.