Mass General Brigham primary care physicians voted last month to unionize, but the union certification process remains in limbo.
MGB, the state’s largest health employer and health care system, appealed to the National Labor Relations Board to review the vote and challenge which doctors are eligible to belong to the union.
Last month, primary care physicians at MGB voted 183-26 in support of forming a bargaining union — the first time primary care physicians in the state took such action. They said is a union is needed to better maintain patient care, address staff shortages and burnout from long hours.
Madhuri Rao, a family doctor at MGH Chelsea HealthCare Center, said the health care system filed the legal appeal to stall the union’s certification.
“This is a really common anti-union tactic that we see a lot, which is to delay as much as possible in the hopes that people start to run out of steam or decide it’s not worth it,” Rao said.
Rao said the bargaining unit received approval from the NLRB’s Boston office to move forward with the vote to join the Doctors Council of the Service Employees International Union. Before the election was held on May 30, however, MGB filed its appeal contesting the NLRB’s decision.
Mass General Brigham told GBH News it submitted its request to the NLRB to ensure the proposed bargaining unit aligns with legal precedent.
The healthcare system’s management argues that to pass legal muster, the union would need to include all doctors working at its hospitals, not just primary care physicians.
“Our legal position ... is that the (NLRB’s) decision to include physicians working within or integrated in our acute care hospitals without also including all other physician in those hospitals is contrary to well-established NLRB rule and case law,” an MGB spokesperson said.
The primary care physicians’ vote to unionize came just weeks after Mass General Brigham signed a three-year agreement with nearly 3,000 doctors in training who joined the Committee of Interns and Residents of the SEIU in 2023.
Rao hopes the health care system will voluntarily recognize the union, but in the meantime, the physicians will continue to advocate for their needs through other avenues.
“We are the union,” she said. “It’s just nice to have the legal protection and the resources.”
Absent voluntary recognition, a decision about the proposed bargaining unit is on hold indefinitely. The NLRB main office in Washington, D.C., does not have a quorum to certify the union vote after President Donald Trump fired two members.
