On Friday, over 200 community members rallied outside of Rhode Island Hospital, calling on Brown University Health — the hospital’s parent organization — to offer higher salaries and improved benefits to residents and fellows unionized under the Committee of Interns and Residents.
Hundreds of residents and fellows across four Brown-affiliated hospitals unionized under CIR, a local of the Service Employees International Union, in January 2025. Negotiations between the union and hospital administrators have been ongoing since June 2025.
According to Kit Quain — a child and adolescent psychiatry fellow and a member of the union bargaining team — the union rejected the hospital’s contract offer at a Tuesday bargaining session. Quain said that this was initially going to be the hospital’s last, best and final offer, but that community pressure led them to continue negotiating. The next session is on Oct. 6, according to the union…