Mass Common Brigham docs maintain Labor Day rally amid first contract negotiation

Mass Common Brigham docs confirmed out this Labor Day amid contentious negotiations for his or her first contract since unionizing over a 12 months in the past.

“We want to do our work,” stated Brigham and Girls’s Hospital pathology resident Lee Richman. “We love our work. We’re passionate about the care we provide. And at this point the barrier to that is management not giving us a serious fair contract proposal, multiple times now. We’re waiting for them to step up and do the right thing.”

Resident physicians and fellows within the Mass Common Brigham system rallied at two places, Cardinal Cushing Memorial Park close to MGH and Brigham and Girls’s Hospital, early Monday afternoon. The union members rallied exterior the hospitals to name for higher wages and advantages in a brand new contract proposal.

Scores of MGB docs joined the Committee of Interns and Residents (CIR) union in June of 2023 and have been negotiating their first contract with the hospital for almost a 12 months, Richman estimated.

The union said the docs are preventing for “improved training conditions that directly affect patient care, critically needed improvements to their healthcare plan, access to reproductive technologies and a livable wage,” amongst different priorities.

CIR referred to as the hospital administration’s final wage proposal “insulting,” noting the proposed 2% elevate for every year of the contract is up barely from their earlier 1.5% provide. Richman stated the negotiations have come to “tentative agreements” on points like safety, however the union has been “stonewalled” on bigger profit and pay points.

“We’re getting tired of getting unserious responses back with minimal movement,” stated Richman. “We’re not unreasonable. We work 80-hour weeks, seven-day weeks. We’re just asking to basically be able to pay our rent, have families and have quality of life.”