Residents and fellows at Cambridge Hospital on Friday approved a new contract with Cambridge Health Alliance after six months of negotiations.
About 99% of physicians representing the Intern and Resident Committee, the local branch of the Service Employees International Union, voted in favor of the new contract, which gives residents and fellows 20.5% and 17% pay increases. each.
“I think the pay increase allows us to actually live in the communities we serve. And I think we really want to be able to be closer to our patients. ” said Justin W. Halloran, a CHA resident and CIRSEIU. said the regional vice president.
In addition to the wage increases, the contract also provides for increased education benefits, new mental health and workload reduction committees, and pay for “excessive night shifts for internal medicine physicians,” according to a union press release. It is said that there is.
“We’re cautiously optimistic that we’ve found a way to meet both our needs for mental health and the hospital’s needs to come up with a sustainable structure for that,” Halloran said. .
Mr Halloran said the union was also “looking forward” to increasing the diversity of the hospital’s residents, particularly new benefits giving residents “protective time for religious holidays”. I mentioned it.
“I think this will make it easier to attract a talented and diverse group of residents,” Halloran said.
“We value the significant contributions that our residents and interns make to patient care and are pleased to have agreed to a new agreement with them,” a CHA spokesperson said. David Cecere said in an emailed statement to The Crimson.
During six months of contract negotiations, residents and fellows held two large meetings. One took place outside Cambridge Hospital on August 28th and the other at Cambridge Town Hall on October 1st. The City Hall meeting specifically supported a resolution urging CHA to enter into a contract. We worked with the union and the city council approved it.
“There’s a lot of energy coming from our resident community,” Halloran said. “That energy manifested itself as a desire to get a closer deal done faster, and I think HR responded to what they heard.”
—Staff writer Aran Sonnad-Joshi can be reached at aran.sonnad-joshi@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @asonnadjoshi.
—Staff writer Sheerea X. Yu can be reached at sheerea.yu@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @_shuhree_.
