Boston Medical Center nurses, residents picket over pay

Business admin July 31, 2026 0 Comments

Boston Medical Center nurses, residents picket over pay

Chanting “Boston is a union town,” hundreds of unionized nurses and doctors in training picketed outside Boston Medical Center on Thursday to pressure New England’s largest safety-net hospital to negotiate new contracts with three bargaining units.

Nurses who belong to 1199 of the Service Employees International Union and the Massachusetts Nurses Association shook tambourines and blasted air horns while holding placards that said “Safe Staffing Now.”

The nurses contend that they’re the lowest paid nurses in the city and that inadequate wages are making it hard to retain staff and putting patients and employees at risk.

Joining the nurses on the picket line were members of the Committee of Interns and Residents of the SEIU, some of whom wore blue surgical scrubs or white coats. The CIR represents about 750 doctors in training at the hospital.

Contracts for all three unions, which together represent about 3,000 employees at BMC, expired recently.

Lucia Ryll, a fourth-year resident specializing in ear, nose, and throat conditions, said that she earns $85,000 annually but works about 80 hours a week. That means she makes $16 an hour, she said, not much more than the state’s minimum wage of $15 an hour.

Her union, whose contract expired this month, sought an 8 percent wage increase this year, but management offered 2 percent.

“With inflation of about 4 percent, that would be essentially a pay cut,” said Ryll, 31.

A BMC spokesperson confirmed that management has offered a 2 percent raise to the interns and residents this year and plans to negotiate raises for 2027 and 2028 as part of a three-year contract.

“We believe our current offer is fair and supports our valued employees, while also ensuring the long-term financial stability of BMC to maintain our ability to serve our patients and community,” the spokesperson said.

Kristen Lawlor-Emus, who has worked as a registered nurse at BMC since 2003, said she makes above $100,000 a year after more than two decades on the job. But that pales compared to what nurses can make at other hospitals in the city, said Lawlor-Emus, who works in the pediatric emergency department. For instance, nurses at Brigham and Women’s Hospital with that tenure can make at least $220,000, the Globe has reported.

Members of the unions said they live paycheck to paycheck, but since 2023, they contend, BMC’s C-suite executives have given themselves raises totaling more than $4.5 million.

The BMC spokesperson did not address that criticism.