The Boston Teachers Union stands in solidarity with the unionized healthcare workers in the Massachusetts Nurses Association and Service Employees International Union who are fighting for fair contracts at Boston Medical Center and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Like educators, healthcare workers are essential workers who perform critical tasks that keep society functioning. Many of our members joined recent pickets to demonstrate solidarity and heard all-to-familiar tales: pay too low to start a family and live comfortably in Boston, staffing ratios and schedules that cause burnout, and administrations that would rather disrespect and delay than listen and support.
We call upon these hospitals to bargain in good faith and meet the reasonable demands of their workers. Boston is known as a national leader in both education and healthcare. To maintain world-class schools and hospitals, workers must be treated with dignity and respect.