Residents in New Mexico Ratify First Contract
Highlights Include Salary and Patient Care Gains, and New Labor-Management Forum
August 2007
On August 15, 2007, resident physicians at the University of New Mexico Hospital voted by an overwhelming margin to ratify their first union contract. There are 550 interns, residents and fellows, in 17 different specialties at the hospital.
UNM's CIR negotiating team, pleased and relieved following their late night last session, on August 2, 2007. |
“This new contract delivers solid economic improvements for our house officers and assists us in significantly improving our programs,” said Dr. Elizabeth Burpee, a PGY 3 in Internal Medicine and CIR negotiating team member. “We won considerable increases – on average 7% overall in the first year, with a re-opener in the second year to negotiate further raises – which will help us recruit and retain the unique and talented body of housestaff that we have here at UNM.”
Residents at UNM voted to join CIR six months earlier, to improve wages and working conditions, and gain a greater voice in patient care and health policy issues. Their first contract makes improvements in all those areas, delivering raises that range from 5.3% for first years to 10.3% for residents in their fifth year of training, and creates a brand new Patient Care Fund of $25,000 a year for residents to use to purchase patient care related items and equipment for the hospital. In addition, residents will have regular labor-management meetings to address issues of concern as they come up. They have already met with New Mexico’s Governor Bill Richardson, and Lt. Governor Diane Denish to discuss healthcare policy goals, and look forward to working together in the future.
“This has been a historic year for house officers at UNM,” said Dr. Jay Buys, a PGY 3 in Anesthesia, who was the chair of CIR’s negotiating committee. “We have a new voice to advocate for ourselves and our patients.” Dr. Buys said that he’s looking forward to “continuing to make UNM a truly great place for house officers to train, and an exceptional place for New Mexicans to obtain their care.”
Additional gains include tuition reimbursement for UNM residents who are taking courses towards an advanced degree in a health-related field, paid maternity/paternity leave, and taxi reimbursement for residents who are too tired to drive home after an extended shift of 24+ hours. They also won a voice on the UNM Capital Committee, which decides UNM’s equipment budget; an increased meal allowance to $4.50 per meal; seven paid holidays; and a medical education bonus of $450 per resident per year, with the ability to roll over unused funds from one year to the next.
For Dr. Jose Sterling, a PGY 5 in General Surgery, capping the rate of increases to residents’ contributions to health benefit costs was an important issue, and one in which little progress was made prior to unionization. “Working with CIR, we were able to achieve this goal,” he said. The new contract guarantees current health benefits with a cap on increases to premiums by no more than 5% over the life of the agreement.
Dr. Brian Johnson, a PGY 2 in Family and Community Medicine said that a key benefit of having union representation for him is, “the opportunity to work with other healthcare unions and advocacy groups to reform healthcare on a local and national level.” And Dr. Amy Garcia, a PGY 2 in Pediatrics, said she was impressed that CIR, “is truly a union started by residents, and run by residents, for residents.”