Residents Strike, Demonstrate Around Labor Day Weekend

At least two sets of medical residents and fellows in the U.S. are striking or demonstrating, mainly calling for better pay.

Trainees at the University at Buffalo in New York started a 4-day strike at midnight on Tuesday, and those at the University of Pennsylvania delivered a petition with about 1,000 housestaff signatures to the hospital’s CEO last week.

The 829 residents and fellows at the University at Buffalo, represented by the Union of American Physicians and Dentists (UAPD), have been in talks for more than a year to settle on a contract.

They say they’re earning less than minimum wage given their typical 80-hour work weeks, and that they’re the lowest-paid trainees in their region. They also claim to be the only program without retirement benefits, without a training stipend, and have the worst healthcare policy in the region.

UAPD President Stuart Bussey, MD, JD, was in Buffalo on Tuesday and told MedPage Today in a phone interview that “hundreds” of residents walked out and plan to continue to do so through Friday.

“We had a reasonable solution on the table and they didn’t answer,” Bussey said of University Medical Resident Services (UMRS), the group that employs the residents and fellows. “These residents are the horses that make this place run, and they’re not feeding them enough.”

Bussey also said the largest proportion of those who walked out were in primary care, while trainees from some specialties didn’t walk out because they “don’t want their fellowship or employment threatened. I don’t blame them, it’s a culture of fear.”

Earlier this year, the group put up billboards on the city’s main highway charging that residents are “Overworked. Underpaid. Exploited.” Another said the fact that residents make below minimum wage is “Bad for Patients. Bad for Buffalo.”

A spokesperson for the University at Buffalo sent two statements, one from UMRS and another from the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. UMRS said it provided the union “with a salary proposal that is virtually the same as the union’s proposal” but UAPD decided to move ahead with the strike.

The medical school said it was “encouraged” that UMRS offered residents a “salary on par with their peers at upstate hospitals” and that it was “committed to supporting residents and providing them with outstanding educational opportunities, training, and experience.”

In Philadelphia, over 150 residents and fellows at the University of Pennsylvania, organized through the Committee of Interns and Residents (CIR-SEIU), delivered a petition with 1,000 housestaff signatures to the hospital’s CEO last Friday.

The group has also been negotiating a contract for nearly a year, according to a press release. They’re asking for a “fair living wage” for doctors “who work the longest hours and provide the majority of patient care at UPenn,” said Jamal Moss, MD, a family medicine resident, in the press release.

Pennsylvania State Representative Rick Krajewski joined the doctors on Friday, but security temporarily restricted his access because they thought he was a union organizer, according to the press release. Earlier that week, hospital security removed CIR organizers who brought demonstrating residents lunch, the release stated.

Residents and fellows haven’t had a bargaining session since July 23, according to CIR-SEIU.

Surgery resident Waseem Lutfi, MD, said he and his colleagues will “continue to hold actions inside and outside of the hospital until Penn comes to the table with a fair offer.”

In a statement, Penn Medicine told WHYY that its residents are highly valued and that there have been more than 15 bargaining sessions since last October. It said it recently offered a proposal that would lead to a pay increase of more than 20% over 3 years, but the union rejected it.

A spokesperson for Penn Medicine said in an email to MedPage Today, “We look forward to reconvening with union representatives at the next bargaining session on Sept. 17 and finalizing a fair and equitable contract for Penn Medicine’s housestaff.”

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