PROVIDENCE – Amid contract negotiations, more than 650 resident physicians and fellows at Kent County Memorial, Women & Infants, Butler and Rhode Island hospitals last week presented a petition urging their employers to implement financial and worker safety measures.
The Committee of Interns and Residents of the Service Employees International Union, which represents the workers, has been in negotiations with the four hospitals since June and July as the parties attempt to ratify a new contract.
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Negotiations have seen greater progress at Rhode Island Hospital, the committee says, which is operated by Brown University Health. There, 95% of unionized physicians have agreed to conclude non-economic negotiations with management.
At the other three hospitals, which are operated by Care New England Health System, only 10% of unionized employees are in favor of a tentative agreement with management.
Angelica Chan, an internal medicine resident at Kent Hospital, said in a statement that “CNE and hospital leaders are devaluing everyone’s time and resources by submitting identical counter proposals to three separate tables that include nearly the same bargaining teams of CNE representatives and lawyers.
“Their refusal to streamline negotiations and cause delay hurts our well-being and the quality of care we provide,” she added. “Raising standards for all residents is essential to Rhode Island retaining physicians and ensuring patients receive care from doctors who can be at their best – and that starts with our hospital leaders doing the right thing.”
Care New England spokesperson Doreen Gavin Scanlon said in an emailed statement to Providence Business News on Monday that the health system “is committed to good faith bargaining with three different bargaining units represented by the Committee of Interns and Residents.
“However, each of the bargaining units works at three different hospitals – all of which are quite different in scope and care provided,” she added. “There are unique clinical, operational, and financial circumstances across each of the three hospitals.”
Gavin Scanlon said that all parties are following a previously agreed-upon schedule of bargaining days, and that Care New England has offered to hold additional sessions.
(UPDATE adds comments from Care New England spokesperson Doreen Gavin Scanlon in paragraphs 7-9.)
Jacquelyn Voghel is a PBN staff writer. You may reach her at Voghel@PBN.com.
