“I saw our union during residency as an opportunity to have some sort of collective agency and ability to negotiate within the hospital,” Singh said. At their session on March 8, AHS showed up with no proposals for the physicians.Ījeet Singh, a fourth-year internal medicine resident physician and bargaining committee member, became involved in the union early on during his studies. An administrative law judge found that AHS was in violation of a bargaining act for changing its enforcement of dependent eligibility requirements for medical coverage, without allowing SEIU an opportunity to meet and discuss. 2022, workers filed an unfair labor practice charge against AHS through the California Public Employment Relations Board. Late last year, management delayed bargaining for weeks because they suddenly said they had no authority to bargain, and CIR had to fight to bring negotiators back to the table. AHS continues to refuse to offer more than six weeks of paid parental leave and continues to reject the resident physicians’ child care and proposals for fertility coverage.Īccording to organizers with CIR, AHS has been painfully slow at the table and has repeatedly engaged in bad-faith bargaining. However, resident physicians say there is still a long way to go, and they’ve yet to see movement on a number of crucial priorities, like paid parental leave. At the bargaining session on the night following the unity break, management came back with a small increase in their salary proposal (an additional 2% spread over three years). The goal is to bring attention to AHS’s misconduct during contract negotiations and the way physicians are overworked while they serve on the frontlines of the county’s primary trauma care center. The physicians who attend a unity break are those who are able to do so without disrupting patient care. On March 21, the residents held a unity break, an event that represents a collective time out from the status quo of resident physicians’ exploitative working conditions to come together, speak out, and demand good faith bargaining and a fair contract from AHS. “All we want is a contract that ensures humane working conditions, but instead, management is acting in bad faith by failing to respond to our demands diligently and in a timely manner.” “Many of my colleagues and I came to AHS and Highland Hospital because we wanted to provide care to a community that has been structurally underserved for far too long,” said DaShawn Hickman, a third-year emergency medicine resident at Highland Hospital and a CIR regional vice president. The residents say they are seeking a contract that will protect patient care in one of Oakland’s most underserved areas. The resident physicians at Highland Hospital say they regularly work 80-hour weeks for low hourly wages, and cover many gaps in the hospital due to understaffing. Oakland residents with the Committee of Interns and Residents – Service Employees International Union (CIR- SEIU) have been without a contract since November 2022, and are now holding “unity breaks” to discuss Alameda Health System’s (AHS) conduct during their bargaining process, understaffing, and the need for better working conditions which will improve the care they provide for their predominantly working-class patients. Six months after their last contract expired, resident physicians in Oakland, California, are speaking out about the challenges they’re encountering at the bargaining table.
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