Boston Medical Center resident physicians are pressing their demands for higher wages and retirement benefits, while nurses at Brigham and Women’s Hospital have postponed a planned strike to consider a final contract proposal. The separate disputes center on compensation and affordability, with both hospitals defending their offers as financially sustainable.
Hundreds of BMC residents and fellows picketed Thursday, calling for a return to negotiations, CBS News reported. At the Brigham, the Massachusetts Nurses Association announced Saturday that it would delay an open-ended walkout scheduled for Oct. 14 so members could review the hospital’s proposal, according to Boston.com.
Neither report described a completed agreement. BMC physicians said bargaining had stalled after six months of advocating for better pay. Brigham nurses were preparing to evaluate an offer that followed the hospital’s 27th bargaining session and roughly 24 hours of talks across Thursday and Saturday.
BMC physicians cite Boston living costs
The BMC physicians, represented by the Committee of Interns and Residents, told CBS News that starting salaries generally run about $80,000, with workweeks of roughly 80 hours. They argued that compensation does not adequately reflect their schedules or the expense of living in Boston.
Family medicine resident Natalia Forbath told WBZ-TV that some residents have taken additional jobs because they cannot afford to live in the city. Emergency medicine physician Shad Yasin said the hospital’s proposed compensation lagged both inflation and wages offered to residents elsewhere in Boston.
The physicians also accused hospital leadership of putting executives’ compensation ahead of patient care. BMC is the largest safety-net hospital in New England and primarily serves patients with low incomes, CBS News reported.
In a statement to WBZ-TV, BMC Health System said it values residents and fellows and remains committed to an agreement with their union. It characterized its wage proposal as competitive and said the offer supports the hospital’s financial stability and community mission.
Brigham proposal heads toward a vote
The Brigham proposal addresses wages and health insurance and would run through Sept. 30, 2028, Boston.com reported. It includes two yearly increases of 2.5% to the wage ceiling for nurses with the longest tenure. The union has sought raises covering all nurses to address inflation and living costs.
The hospital said its nursing compensation compares favorably with the market and that its final proposal balances recognition of nurses’ work with its obligations to patients, employees and institutional stability. The union, meanwhile, has criticized Mass General Brigham for resisting general cost-of-living increases.
The postponed walkout would follow a July 8 strike involving about 4,000 nurses. That action lasted one day; the hospital subsequently kept striking nurses out for four more days, citing agreements with replacement staff.
Union spokesperson Joe Markman told Boston.com that members were discussing the proposal and assessing whether it met their principal concerns. A vote date was still being arranged. The union cited the proposal’s complexity and the consequences of a walkout in explaining its postponement.
What’s next: Brigham nurses will decide whether to ratify the proposal. If they reject it and pursue another strike, the union must provide a new notice meeting the legally required 10-day period, Boston.com reported.
