A push by medical residents and fellows at Somerville, Mass.-based Mass General Brigham to organize a housestaff union is moving forward, according to WGBH.
The news outlet reported April 4 that a majority of medical residents and fellows signed cards indicating their support for unionization.
The National Labor Relations Board provides various paths to forming a union. According to the NLRB website, the board will conduct an election if at least 30 percent of workers sign cards or a petition indicating their support for unionization. If the NLRB orders an election, workers would then vote on whether to unionize. Employers may also voluntarily recognize a union. Mass General Brigham on April 3 declined a request to recognize the Committee of Interns and Residents as the exclusive collective bargaining representative for trainees, citing the unreliability of union cards. Therefore, a formal election would be the next step, something employees hope to hold by the end of April, according to WGBH.
If housestaff unionize, more than 2,500 residents and fellows at Mass General Brigham hospitals would join the Committee of Interns and Residents, a local of the Service Employees International Union, according to The Boston Globe. This includes trainees at Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Mass Eye and Ear, Newton-Wellesley Hospital, Salem Hospital, and Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital Boston.
A website related to the union drive states that the effort is focused on "working to build collective power to advocate for a just, safe and equitable MGB for all housestaff, workers and patients." Among concerns cited by medical residents and fellows are a need for a living wage, adequate benefits and compensation commensurate with the cost of living in Boston, and financial support or subsidized child care for housestaff with children.
Kayty Himmelstein, MD, a Mass General Brigham fellow in infectious diseases, told WGBH that residents regularly work 80-hour weeks and that "people are living paycheck to paycheck. They're rationing food at the end of the month. They're turning down the heat. What we're looking for is compensation that would allow folks to meet their basic needs, live close to the hospitals and continue to focus on our patients."
Paul Anderson, MD, PhD, interim chief academic officer at Mass General Brigham, shared the following statement with Becker's: "Medical residents and fellows play a critical role caring for patients across our hospitals as part of their robust educational training and we are privileged to train the next great generation of physicians. We understand that a portion of our trainees have expressed interest in joining a labor union to represent them, and all residents and fellows across our system. While we share the common goal of offering a world-class, comprehensive and supportive medical education experience, we believe we can achieve the best results by working together in direct partnership, rather than through representatives in a process that can lead to conflict and potentially risk the continuity of patient care. We are committed to continuing our dialogue with our trainees and building on a number of achievements including market-leading increases in compensation, retirement savings and healthcare."
Mass General Brigham has also created a website related to the unionization effort.