LAC+USC resident physicians authorize strike
Following a nearly unanimous vote to allow for the authorization of a strike, resident physicians at the Los Angeles County+USC Medical Center gave L.A. County official notice of a three-day unfair labor practice strike Thursday. The strike is set to start June 13 and June 15 if a favorable agreement is not reached between L.A. County and members of the Committee of Interns and Residents/Service Employees International Union.
Resident physicians accuse L.A. County of bad faith bargaining and unlawful conduct over the course of almost one year of contract negotiations after L.A. County’s decision to rollover the residents’ prepandemic contract, which expired in the fall, to the spring. L.A. County officials, physicians allege, have not met the union’s proposals and have repeatedly canceled bargaining sessions. The union’s proposals include a wage floor increase of 10% to keep up with inflation and cost of living increases in L.A., a rise in the amount allotted as a housing stipend and improved diversity training.
Months of grievances and frustration at the bargaining table led SEIU Local 721-represented L.A. County employees, including nurses, to call a strike authorization vote, which began May 16 and ended May 31 with an overwhelming 99% majority voting affirmatively.
“A super majority of our members have been watching us at the bargaining table for months and months now and watching County really leave us with no choice but to take more decisive action,” said Mahima Iyengar, regional vice president of public hospitals in Southern California of CIR and first-year internal medicine and pediatrics resident at LAC+USC. “County dragged out this bargaining process over months [and] failed to make movements on our proposals.”
The authorization vote enabled the resident physicians to call a strike if they believed L.A. County continued to bargain in bad faith. The move to strike, if unaverted, will mark the first time resident physician members of CIR/SEIU nationwide strike in 32 years.
“We do not take the decision to strike lightly, and we have presented the County with more than sufficient notice of our strike plans in order to help ensure that they have time to safely staff our hospitals in our absence,” a Thursday CIR/SEIU press release read.
Union members said they are still hopeful that a strike can be averted and urge L.A. County to “do the right thing.”
The CIR/SEIU bargaining team is hoping to find a resolution as soon as possible, Iyengar said, as residents, interns and fellows stay on and work at the hospital for a limited amount of time.
“We have members that are going to be graduating soon that worked through the pandemic — intubating people, taking care of people — and they deserve to have some sort of resolution to this contract that’s expired before they graduate,” Iyengar said. “We also have incoming interns that are going to be starting in just a couple of weeks, and we’re already getting calls about them not being able to find housing on the salary that’s in the old expired contract.”
In a statement issued Thursday to the Daily Trojan, the L.A. County Department of Health Services reaffirmed that labor negotiations are ongoing and are led by the L.A. County Chief Executive Office.
“Our Residents and Interns, who are completing their medical education and/or training, along with our Doctors, Nurses and other healthcare personnel are dedicated to those we serve and know first-hand how hard everyone worked to get us to where we are now,” the statement read.
Resident physicians have been engaged in intensive bargaining sessions with L.A. County over the past week, with some sessions lasting more than six hours. Though the CIR team went into the sessions hopeful that L.A. County would meet them at the table in good faith, Iyengar said, the parties have been unable to reach a definite agreement.
“We are just hoping that [L.A. County officials] bring everybody to the table that’s able to help make some decisions and that they really respond to all of our proposals … If we feel like they’re coming to the table with some movements and they’re responding to our proposals fairly, we’re still hopeful that we’ll be able to avert a strike,” Iyengar said. “It’s really a last resort for us. We don’t want to go on strike. We want to just be doing our jobs and taking care of our patients.”
The L.A. County CIR/SEIU physicians gained the support of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who expressed his solidarity with the members in a May 24 tweet.
“New doctors should not be forced to work 80 hours a week for incredibly low wages,” Sanders wrote. “I’m proud to stand in solidarity with @CIRSEIU frontline physicians in @countyofla fighting not only for decent wages and working conditions, but to improve care for their patients.”
Iyengar said she’s received calls from incoming residents who are excited to join the residency union and become a part of the current members’ efforts. Energy among the resident team is “really high” right now, she said, and her coworkers often discuss the talks among themselves.
“I’m excited to continue to get to be part of this really incredible team of people that really put all of their time into making sure that we are able to have everything that we need outside of work so that when we’re at work, we’re able to give everything to our patients,” Iyengar said.
Negotiations between physicians and L.A. County representatives continue over the coming days.