Mass General Brigham (MGB), the largest private employer in Massachusetts, has a problem. Resident and fellow physicians—the house staff that comprise a critical mass of the hospital system’s workforce—remain disrespected and underpaid.
Chances are, the physician first to respond to a stroke alert, to see a patient in clinic, to check on them after surgery, or to analyze their scans and lab results, is a member of the 2,700-house staff at MGB.
These trainee physicians, who often work 60-80 hours per week, including 28-hour shifts plus night and holiday coverage, and whose salaries are most commonly covered by payments from Medicare to training hospitals, see only a fraction of those payments and are not eligible for overtime compensation.
Meanwhile, many attempt to pay off their student loans, perhaps start their families, and, along with other Bostonians, struggle with rent on earnings that are near-minimum wage when broken down by hours worked. After months of negotiating for a fair contract, house staff unionized under the Committee of Interns and Residents (CIR) have grown tired of waiting.
Administrators at MGB have not reached an agreement in contract negotiations, after offering an appalling 2.25% raise, representing an effective pay cut when considering inflation and Boston price increases. This action spurred the recent delivery of an open letter signed by hundreds of house staff to the Office of Graduate Medical Education (GME) and a unity break demonstration outside MGB’s major hospitals on Labor Day. Negotiations will continue.
According to Healthcare Dive, that tracks strikes of healthcare workers including medical and nursing staff, so far this year, worker strikes across the country continue at rates higher than 2023.
The MGB strike is the latest in a string of worker strikes that also recently include Hawaii Pacific Health’s Kapi’olani Medical Center for Women and Children, HCA Healthcare-owned Mission Hospital in N. Carolina, Providence’s Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Washington, University of Illinois, Geisinger Community Medical Center in Pennsylvania and many more.
In Massachusetts, MGB residents and fellows gathered recently near Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital to chant, “No contract? No peace!”
Dr. Lee Richman, in his third year of Pathology residency, shouted to the crowd outside Shapiro Cardiovascular Center, “I went through four years of undergrad, three years of laboratory research, three years of graduate school, one year of post-doc[toral work], four years of medical school, two years of residency so far and at least three more years of training to go. I will be 37 when I’m done…”
Age aside, research shows residents are more likely to suffer infertility and complicated pregnancies likely due to the strenuous nature of medical training.
Yet, in contract negotiations thus far, MGB has refused to budge on fertility benefits, including egg preservation, for its residents.
If not benefits, then what is necessary is a salary to cover whatever a trainee physician needs– whether that is family planning, childcare, or simply rent. The hospital requires residents to live within a 20-minute commute radius of the hospital to take call. Many hospital shifts start at dawn, or end 28 hours after their start. This restricts where residents can live to the most expensive parts of the city, in one of the most expensive cities in the United States. Boston is now on-par with New York City, with an average rent in 2024 of $3,359 which is a 6.7% increase from last year.
The issues of financial security and fair benefits resonated with other unionized laborers who gathered alongside the doctors at the rallies—aptly named unity breaks—including members of the Massachusetts Nurses Association.
In July, the 4,500 nurses in their bargaining unit voted to authorize a strike after MGB repeatedly failed to address serious patient care issues including unsafe staffing ratios, equipment shortages, and environmental hazards, as well as wages. To avert the strike, MGB increased wages by 20-30% over 2.5 years and improved workplace safety mechanisms.
Collective labor action works.
Residents are constantly stepping up to deliver the best care despite large patient volumes, global technological outages, infectious disease outbreaks, and more. It is time for administrations across the nation to acknowledge the difficulties and step up.