Interns at City Hospital Seek Bargaining Status

An association of interns and residents at the Cambridge City Hospital has filed an application for official certification with the Massachusetts Labor Relations Commission, an official of the commission said yesterday.

The House Officers Association, whole organizers include three Harvard College alumni and one Medical school graduate, applied March 1; under a Massachusetts law allowing public employees to organize official bargaining units.

Under rules specified by the law, the city is required to engage in collective bargaining with the Association if the Labor Relations commission certifies it.

Cambridge City Hospital administrators were unavailable for comment yesterday.

Legal Means

Dr. Gregory R. Wagner '69, the association's secretary-treasurer, said yesterday the interns and residents were "resorting to a legal means" to begin a dialogue with city officials and the hospital administration on several issues, including working hours and salaries.

"People in the administration have shown us that we need an organization to back us up" in discussions with officials, Dr. Patricia E. Moyer '69, co-chairperson of the association said yesterday.

"We are formalizing a mechanism by which issues can be brought up and discussed." Dr. Hilary G. Worthen '69, an intern at the hospital, said yesterday.

Wagner, Moyer, and Worthen all emphasized that they were expressing their personal views of the situation, and were not speaking for the association, which has not yet held a policy meeting.

The three interns said the association was not formed to remedy any specific grievances, but to open "channels for discussion." They said interns and residents usually work about 100 hours per week, and they were concerned about a doctor's ability to work effectively at a level of exhaustion.

There are about 40 interns and residents working at the hospital. The Labor Relations Commission requires 30 per cent of a prospective bargaining unit to sign the application petition, and Wagner said yesterday their petition had more than the required signatures.

The commission will hold a "pre-investigative conference" with the association and city officials on April 4 to discuss the association's possible certification.

The Cambridge Hospital's association is the first house officer's association to file for certification under the state's new public employees law, which was passed July 1, 1974.

Boston City Hospital has a house officer's association that negotiates with the city of Boston, but it has not filed for official certification.

Earlier this month interns and residents at 21 New York hospitals struck in protest against long hours and bad working conditions, but interns at Cambridge City Hospital said yesterday they began organizing the association before that strike and that conditions are better in Cambridge than in New York.

Leslie Macleod, director of the hospital, was unavailable for comment yesterday