BMC Residents Picket Over Pay | The Boston Report

Boston Medical Center’s campus in the South End, file photo. Photo: Cmcnicoll via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

Hundreds of resident physicians and fellows at Boston Medical Center picketed outside the South End hospital on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026, pressing for higher pay and retirement benefits and calling on hospital negotiators to return to the bargaining table, CBS Boston reported. The doctors in training are represented by the Committee of Interns and Residents (CIR), part of the Service Employees International Union.

Union members told WBZ-TV they have been pushing for a new contract for about six months and described the talks as stalled. Boston Medical Center, New England’s largest safety-net hospital, said in a statement that it remains committed to reaching an agreement.

What the residents are asking for

Residents and fellows at the picket said the hospital’s offer does not keep pace with inflation or with what other teaching hospitals in the city pay their trainees. They also accused hospital leaders of prioritizing executive pay over patient care, according to CBS Boston.

“Right now, BMC has yet to offer us a contract that is on par with inflation, and it’s not even nearly on par with the wages that are being shared across the other residents among the city,” emergency medicine physician Shad Yasin told WBZ-TV after coming off an overnight shift to join the line.

Natalia Forbath, a family medicine resident, described the personal strain. “I’m currently in almost my third trimester of pregnancy. I’m going to work a night shift tonight. I don’t feel like my hospital cares about me,” she told the station. “Many of our residents can no longer afford to live here, so they’re actually picking up second jobs just to be able to live in the city of Boston.”

Physicians said starting pay is around $80,000 a year, for weeks that typically run about 80 hours. At those figures, a year of 52 such weeks works out to roughly $19 an hour, a Boston Report calculation based on the numbers the residents cited.

What Boston Medical Center says

“Boston Medical Center values the contributions of our residents and fellows and remains committed to reaching agreement with the CIR. Our offer provides competitive wages while supporting the long-term sustainability of the hospital and our ability to care for the community,” BMC Health System said in a statement to WBZ-TV.

Earlier in the dispute, a BMC spokesperson confirmed to The Boston Globe in July that management had offered the interns and residents a 2 percent raise for this year, with raises for 2027 and 2028 to be negotiated as part of a three-year contract. The union had sought 8 percent, the Globe reported. “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 at the time.

How the dispute got here

Thursday’s picket was not the first. On July 30, residents joined nurses from 1199SEIU and the Massachusetts Nurses Association on Albany Street in a joint action; the three bargaining units together represent about 3,000 BMC employees, and all of their contracts had recently expired, according to the Globe. CIR represents roughly 750 doctors in training at the hospital, the Globe reported then.

The Boston City Council weighed in last month. Councilors adopted a resolution supporting the CIR-represented residents in their push for fair wages, affordable health care, safe working conditions and adequate time off, according to a council announcement dated Sept. 30. The resolution states that BMC residents are the lowest-paid unionized resident physicians in Greater Boston and notes that more than half of the hospital’s patients come from underserved or low-income backgrounds. A council resolution is non-binding and does not set contract terms.

Day-to-day finances for residents were the subject of an Oct. 14 Globe profile of third-year internal medicine resident Chris Torlone, who earns about $85,000 a year and works anywhere from about 45 to 86 hours a week while raising two young children in the South End.

Inflation context from federal data

The inflation argument can be checked against federal numbers. The Bureau of Labor Statistics consumer price index for the Boston-Cambridge-Newton area, published on FRED by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, stood at 362.575 in September 2026, up about 3.8 percent from 349.271 in September 2025. Boston-area prices are measured every other month, so September is the most recent reading. By that measure, a 2 percent raise would trail local price growth, though the final contract terms, including any changes to the offer since July, have not been made public.

What happens next

Neither side announced new bargaining dates on Thursday, and the residents did not announce a strike vote. Labor disputes at Boston teaching hospitals have often run for months; nurses at Brigham and Women’s Hospital recently postponed a planned strike ahead of a contract vote, and graduate workers at Harvard have announced a strike for Oct. 27. For the council’s broader agenda, see our recap of the Oct. 7 Boston City Council meeting.

The Boston Report will update this story if BMC or CIR announce a tentative agreement or further action.

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Boston Medical Center Residents Picket for Higher Pay, Retirement Benefits