U.S. News: Medical Residents Unionize Over Pay, Conditions

"Physicians-in-training at top teaching hospitals across the country are joining unions, demanding higher pay and better working conditions.

The Committee of Interns and Residents (CIR), the largest group representing doctors in residency and fellowship programs, said it added chapters at five teaching hospitals last year and two in 2021, up from a prepandemic pace of roughly one a year. CIR, which is affiliated with the Service Employees International Union, said it represents about 15% of the nation's 140,000 residents and fellows.

The pandemic's strains spurred residents to organize, said Simranvir Kaur, a fourth-year resident specializing in obstetrics and gynecology at Stanford Medicine, where most of some 1,400 Stanford residents voted to form a union last May. Residents were working longer shifts without extra compensation and treating Covid-19 patients without adequate protective gear, Dr. Kaur said.

"When there's extra work, the burden falls on us," Dr. Kaur said. Stanford, which is based in Palo Alto, Calif., said it is negotiating a union contract with its residents.

Unionized nurses at Montefiore Medical Center and Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City went on a three-day strike this month over pay and staffing concerns. Graduate students at the University of California recently went on strike for over a month.

Hospital administrators said residents and fellows are unique from other healthcare workers because they are both employees and students who are learning from the institution. A strike among unionized residents could cripple a hospital's ability to care for patients, administrators said. The American Medical Association's ethics code advises physician unions not to engage in strikes by withholding essential medical services. CIR said that residents' first priority is patients and that unionized residents would vote to strike only as a last resort.

"We prefer not to strike. We want to work, we are privileged to do what we do," said Anis Adnani, a second-year emergency medicine resident at the University of Illinois Chicago. "But we have no leverage if it's not on the cards."

UIC said it was negotiating with CIR to establish a union contract for residents.

Residents said they believe collective bargaining could win them better pay and working conditions that could alleviate some burnout and stress. CIR said its members have won concessions, including better compensation at St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, D.C., and more protections for pregnant residents at the University of Washington.

The University of Washington said residents and fellows are important members of the care teams at UW Medicine.

Stanford residents said they are pushing for higher wages and more accommodations for residents who are breast-feeding or have disabilities.

At Montefiore, residents plan to vote on whether to officially establish a union, CIR said. Residents there said their interest was partly motivated by Montefiore's decision to move clinics in the Bronx and direct resources to more affluent neighborhoods.

Montefiore said it is committed to its patients in the Bronx and to improving services to reach them.” [1]

1.  U.S. News: Medical Residents Unionize Over Pay, Conditions
Mosbergen, Dominique.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 17 Jan 2023: A.3.