Community protests for new contract

Hundreds of LAC+USC Hospital resident physicians walked out of work Tuesday to protest for a new contract with Los Angeles County that includes increased pay and improved benefits. L.A. County has thus far refused to negotiate a new contract, according to a Committee of Interns and Residents press release.

Residents and doctors said they want new contracts that raise housing subsidies to compete with nearby programs. 

Wearing scrubs, whitecoats and holding signs that read “Support LA County Resident Physicians,” protesters lined up on the stairs outside LAC+USC as residents, doctors and local politicians such as California Sen. María Elena Durazo and Assemblymember Miguel Santiago delivered speeches, praising residents’ work during the pandemic and supporting their protests.

“You have saved the lives of our communities while you put your own lives and your own families at risk,” Santiago said. “So what we’re asking here today is not a whole heck of a lot. What we’re asking here today is just a simple contract that says, ‘We appreciate your work.’”

LAC+USC, located near the Health Sciences Campus and one of the largest hospitals in the nation, is affiliated with the Keck School of Medicine and owned by L.A. County.

Dr. Adam Freeman, a delegate on the bargaining committee who spoke at the protest, said LAC+USC needs to attract physicians who are dedicated to serving the community.

 “We need to increase our economic compensation in terms of benefits and salaries so we can bring those visitors over,” said Freeman in an interview with the Daily Trojan following the protest. “There’s a lot of other L.A hospitals that have similar patient populations, but they have better [salaries] and benefits. 

Dr. Max Yang, an internist in internal medicine at LAC+USC, said, “every residency program in [Southern California] has a housing subsidy, and they can be upward of $10,000 … We’re trying to at least get parity with those competing programs in the area.”

According to Freeman, L.A. County has declined to increase coverage of “living or housing,” citing finance limitations and will instead extend the current contract six months.  

Los Angeles City Controller Ron Galperin, who spoke at the event, said the County “[has] those resources” for residents, and it has an “obligation on the part of our county to look out for you the way that you have looked out for everybody and are doing so each and every single day.”

“I’m all for saving money, but you save money on the right things, not the wrong things,” Galperin said.

Internal medicine internist Dr. Pratik Doshi said a weaker contract will lead to worse hospital care. 

“If you don’t have great residents coming here, then you don’t get great doctors who are [going to] stay here to become faculty members and take care of these patients long term,” Doshi said. “This is kind of an institutional issue where, if you don’t fix it now, it causes long-term problems.”

During the protest, speakers emphasized the extra work residents dealt with as a result of the pandemic, including long hours, risking contracting coronavirus and comforting sick patients whose family could not enter the hospital.

“Every one of us has a residency and fellowship programs impacted by this pandemic, even at times foregoing educational and training opportunities to assist you in times of COVID surges,” Freeman said. “We avoided family to prevent exposing them [to coronavirus] and initiated our own [personal protective equipment] drive to ensure the hospital never ran out of equipment.”

When Durazo spoke, she led residents in chanting “Bargain now! No more delays!” — the shouts directed at the County. Durazo also spoke about the disparate impact the coronavirus has on Black, Indigenous and people of color, asserting the need for “the best doctors” in the community around LAC+USC and the County’s responsibility to give back to the residents for their work in the community.

“We must be there and stand with you. This is all for the health and wellness of our communities, especially our most impacted, and especially our poorest communities,” Durazo said. “Every single person deserves the best health care.”

At the end of his speech, Freeman reaffirmed the residents’ commitment to receive a new contract.

“We pay over $200,000 in educational debt, we don’t qualify for overtime or comprehensive retirement benefits, we work an average of 80 hours a week,” he said. “Our response to the county is that we didn’t roll over for the pandemic, and we aren’t going to roll over now.”

In a statement to the Daily Trojan, LAC+USC said that CIR labor negotiations occur at the LA County CEO’s office. 

“In support of our mission, LA County Health Services provides extraordinary care in our community with compassion and respect. This could not be done without our workforce members who deliver best-in-class care,” the statement read. “We want to thank our workforce members for their heroic efforts throughout the pandemic and as we move towards a better normal.” 

A previous version of this article incorrectly attributed a quote by Dr. Pratik Doshi to Dr. Blake Adnani. The Daily Trojan regrets this error.