Sign up for the Today newsletter
Get everything you need to know to start your day, delivered right to your inbox every morning.
Hundreds of resident physicians, supporters march outside Mass General Brigham hospitals for higher salaries and better benefits
The residents, who unionized a year and a half ago, still haven’t reached a contract with Mass General Brigham executives.
Eighty-hour work weeks. Selling their plasma to pay rent. Rodents in the hospitals they work in.
The resident physicians and fellows who marched outside Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital Thursday afternoon said conditions like these have become reality. They called on MGB executives to stop what they describe as “resident exploitation” and to bargain for a fair contract.
The effort was joined by other healthcare professionals, community supporters, and labor allies — about 200 people at each hospital — who held signs declaring, “Boston deserves quality healthcare” and “MGB executives are trying to silence us! But we won’t stop fighting for Boston’s healthcare!” One reported MGB President and CEO Anne Klibanski’s salary as $6 million, “while MGB residents struggle to pay rent & bills!”
Advertisement:
Back in June 2023, more than 1,200 residents and fellows at multiple MGB facilities voted to unionize and joined the Committee of Interns and Residents (CIR) at the Service Employees International Union. Since then, according to CIR, MGB has “stripped them of basic benefits,” like meal stipends, parking, exam funding, and licensure coverage in Massachusetts.
Residents denounce low salaries, high cost of living
There was a series of speakers followed by a brief march back and forth in front of Mass General Hospital. The call-and-response chants at the rally, included “MGH you can’t hide, we’ve got patients on our side!”
Many of the residents who joined the rally on Wednesday were motivated by their salaries, which they feel don’t account for Boston’s high cost of living.
Advertisement:
“We’re residents in one of the most expensive cities in the country and the world, and we’re getting paid similar levels to cities that are way cheaper to live in,” said Diogo Maia, a first-year resident in pathology at Mass General.
His salary as a first-year resident is $78,500, and he works between 60 and 75 hours a week, he said.
“We can’t afford things that we feel like we should be able to,” Maia said.
Shannon Cleary, a third-year resident physician at the hospital, earns slightly more — a little over $90,000. But still, she feels the effects of Boston’s high price points.
“It’s hard to have to have a roommate at 31 in order to afford to live here, and I still live like 30 minutes away from the hospital,” she said.
The union is also pushing for better health benefits, including reproductive benefits, a priority for Cleary.
“We devote our 20s to this career, and there are repercussions for that,” Cleary said. “We want a fair exchange for that commitment we’ve had to this career.”
For most residents, it’s their first job after medical school and college, and many come with debt to pay off.
Advertisement:
“I have over $150,000 in loans, and that’s on top of living in one of the most expensive cities in the country,” said Schenck, whose salary as a second-year internal medicine resident is $82,500.
He said the ability to make ends meet is an “extraordinarily common concern among residents and fellows.”
“That’s what got us here,” Schenck said.
Optimism despite a long process
A year and a half since the June 2023 union vote, residents still do not have their first contract with the hospitals.
“Now we’ve reached a turning point where the MGB execs are really stalling and stonewalling and not negotiating in good faith,” said Jade Connor, a third-year resident at Mass General Hospital. “That’s why we came to rally today, to show MGB that we’re not standing down and that they need to come to the bargaining table.”
And for the most part, they’re confident that it will work — not because of anything MGB has indicated, but because of how much support the movement has received.
“I’m hopeful because of all the people here today, because of how much support there is here, even from people walking by who are cheering or saying they’re with us,” said Cleary.
Advertisement:
Yet they remained frustrated with the hospital system. Mass General Brigham, which operates 12 hospitals and various additional clinics, is the state’s largest health system.
“We go to the bargaining committee meetings and it feels like the same thing again and again,” Cleary said.
The movement for unionization is growing. Last month, nearly 300 primary care physicians — the vast majority of primary care physicians at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital — expressed desire to join a union due to burnout and corporatization, and on Nov. 15, they filed. MGB’s opposition to the move led to two dozen doctors in their white coats demonstrating near Mass General on Nov. 30.
CIR is the largest union for housestaff — resident physicians, interns, and fellows who work under the guidance of attending staff — in the United States, representing more than 33,000 resident physicians and fellows in Massachusetts, California, Washington, Florida, Idaho, New Mexico, New Jersey, Vermont, New York, and Washington D.C.
“I’m hoping that MGB sees not only residents and fellows, but primary care doctors, other physicians, nurses, other healthcare workers and support staff, all out here rallying and standing with us,” Connor said.
Sorry. This form is no longer available.
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com