Jefferson Health and ChristianaCare resident doctors join local wave of unionizing

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Resident doctors at Jefferson Health and ChristianaCare voted to unionize this week, joining their counterparts at several other major health care institutions in the Philadelphia area.

They voted to join the Committee of Interns and Residents (CIR/SEIU), which says the organization now represents more than 80% of resident doctors in the Philadelphia area. Residents doctors at Penn Medicine were the first to unionize, and ratified a contract last fall.

Resident organizers at Jefferson, ChristianaCare, Temple Health and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia announced they wanted to unionize late last year. The first election was at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where residents voted narrowly against forming a union.

Dr. Trishya Srinivasan, an internal medicine doctor at Jefferson Health, said that made her and other organizers approach their election with “cautious optimism.” The residents at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital went on to vote 552 to 73 in favor of forming a union.

“We’re all feeling an immense sense of relief that this was the outcome,” she said. “I think we’re all absolutely elated and we’re all fully fired up.”

She said the residents had started talking around unionizing two years ago, and are excited about bargaining for better working conditions in their contract so they can provide better patient care.

Dr. Sarah Qadir, a psychiatry resident, said she and other residents felt like there was no meaningful way to talk to management about their concerns, such as long working hours, struggles to pay rent and raise families on their salaries and so called “out of title work” that is important but technically not part of their duties as doctors, which includes drawing blood and transporting patients.

“We weren’t listened to. So that’s kind of what started it,” Qadir said.

She added that she was disappointed in how Jefferson Health management responded to the union organizing.

In an email Jefferson Health sent to residents before the vote obtained by WHYY News, officials wrote that it may take more than a year to negotiate a first contract, that “unprepared union leaders may not be able to live up to all promises made during a fast-paced and massive campaign” and that “CIR/SEIU’s fast growth may not mean high-quality representation.”

In a statement, a Jefferson spokesperson said they respect the decision to vote for a union and remain committed to “maintaining an environment of exceptional medical training, open communication, and collaboration to ensure the success and well-being of our residents as we deliver outstanding patient care.”

The spokesperson did not respond to a question about the emails from management.

Residents at ChristianaCare voted 111-52 in favor of unionizing.

According to Dr. Layla Annous, an internal medicine and pediatrics resident, ChristianaCare management responded to the union campaign in a “neutral” way

“There was no animosity or anything like that” she said, adding that ChristianaCare management notified residents that this campaign had started and when the voting would happen.

She said residents there have quite good benefits that they would like to enshrine in a contract, though there is room for improvement when it comes to issues like out of title work and childcare. She said residents there are excited by their election win, particularly because they started organizing last September, so it was very fast.

In a statement, a ChristianaCare spokesperson said they respect the election results and are committed to bargain in good faith on a contract.

These elections come after Einstein Healthcare and Temple residents also voted to form unions earlier this month. Staff doctors at ChristianaCare voted to unionize last year as well.