I had previously witnessed a hospital strike during my medical residency days in Montreal. At the time, strikes were commonplace events in Canada. This reality must have shocked some of the U.S. rheumatology fellowship program directors who were attempting to contact me via my hospital’s page operators to arrange my interview visits, only to be told that “all the doctors here are on strike.”
The dispute centered on medical teaching issues that related to residents aligned with the University of Montreal. Despite the fact that my hospital was a McGill University teaching affiliate, we were being pressured to show our solidarity with their cause, not only by joining their work stoppage, but also by organizing into a common labor union that would be affiliated with a very powerful one, the longshoremen’s union. Such an obvious match, eh? An alignment with the stevedores struck fear in the hearts of the hospital administrators, who preferred not to deal with a bunch of burly, angry muscular men picketing alongside their geeky comrades! It felt strange being forced to stay out of work for the several days it took for the two sides to settle the matter. In the end, the medical house staff chose not to unionize.
This vivid memory came to mind when, days in advance of the strike date, the BWH nurses held a massive, noisy rally outside the main entrance to the hospital. Throngs of enraged nurses shouting angry chants and waving handmade picket signs chastising the Brigham were cordoned off by a phalanx of Boston police. The din of the shouting and chanting seemed terribly out of place at a hospital where not so long ago, staff was applauded and admired by the community for saving lives and healing many of the dismembered victims of the 2014 Boston Marathon bombing. I felt a sickening chill down my spine.
Perhaps it was the intervention of several key city figures, including the mayor of Boston, Marty Walsh, a former union organizer, that led to a settlement a mere 36 hours prior to the strike start. Based on the agreement, it was hard to ascertain why the strike had been called in the first place. Nurses received a 2% pay hike for the next three years, the hospital gained labor peace for the length of the three-year contract, and all other grievances were to be handled through future discussions.
A sense of disrespect on the part of the hospital administrators … is a powerful emotion, one that can adversely influence one’s attitude toward work & one’s self-worth.
The Airing of Grievances
So what was the point of threatening to strike? Because money was not the focal issue, could it have been triggered by the nurses’ perception of a sense of disrespect on the part of the hospital administrators? This is a powerful emotion, one that can adversely influence one’s attitude toward work and one’s self-worth.
