The National Labor Relations Board has sided with primary care physicians at Mass General Brigham’s Massachusetts General and Brigham and Women’s hospitals by allowing the proposed 400-member bargaining unit to proceed to union election, The Boston Globe reported.
The NLRB ruled April 18 that the primary care physicians belong in a single proposed bargaining unit, creating a path for a union election.
In 2024, physicians filed a petition with the NLRB, seeking an election to decide whether to join Doctors Council, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union. After the filing, Mass General Brigham argued that 18 of the 29 work sites were ineligible from joining the bargaining unit, as they were acute-care hospitals.
The NLRB found instead that most of the 18 locations were not part of acute-care hospitals and were therefore eligible to join the proposed bargaining unit, and that some facilities adjoining Mass General Brigham’s acute-care hospitals were eligible under “extraordinary circumstances,” according to the Globe.
A ruling in favor of Mass General Brigham would have limited the proposed bargaining unit to about 100 physicians, Gabrielle Hanley, a lead organizer with the Doctors Council, told the newspaper.
The NLRB has set a date for an election to be conducted by mail. Ballots will be mailed to eligible employees May 6, and all ballots will be counted at the NLRB regional office in Boston on May 30.
“MGB tried to delay, divide, and discourage us — but we stayed united,” Kristen Gunning, MD, a physician at MGH Bulfinch Medical Group, said in a union news release. “This ruling confirms what we’ve known all along: primary care physicians must have a collective voice to fight for our patients and our profession.”
Mass General Brigham is reviewing the decision, a spokesperson said in a statement shared with Becker’s. The statement also emphasized the importance of the work of primary care physicians.
“Primary care physicians are critical to the health of our patients and community,” the statement said. “We know that PCPs across the commonwealth are facing unprecedented volume and stress as a result of a confluence of factors that are not unique to our organization. We share the common goal of offering world-class, comprehensive care for our patients and believe we can achieve this best by working together in direct partnership, rather than through representatives in a process that can lead to conflict and potentially risk the continuity of patient care.”
Mass General Brigham may appeal the NLRB ruling.