FAQ

As of mid-October 2023, bargaining sessions between our union and SHC will be led by a federal mediator. What does federal mediation mean? The negotiating parties (CIR and SHC) will now communicate only via the federal mediator for bargaining. Mediation sessions for CIR (e.g. CIR and mediator present, but not SHC) will still be open… Read More »What is Federal Mediation?

What: A unity break is where we stand in solidarity with not only our fellow housestaff, but other healthcare workers and community/political allies. A unity break is not a strike or work stoppage.  Why: As a union, our strength comes from collective action and solidarity. A unity break is a strategic way to address and bring… Read More »What’s a unity break?

Bargaining sessions are currently occurring every other Thursday, alternating between day (12PM – 3PM) and evening (5PM – 8PM). Import our shared calendar here. To get the Zoom link, search your non-work email for an email sent by ‘Stanford Housestaff Union’. The Zoom link may be different for each session. Why should I join? Besides… Read More »How do I attend the bargaining meetings?

Our union is only as strong as our members – being a member will add to our collective strength, help us stand up to an employer like Stanford, and allow you to have a say on what we do with this power. A stronger, united membership gives us the leverage to win what we’re fighting… Read More »What’s the deal with the membership card?

What’s going on, what’s bargaining, and how does it work? We won and certified our union in May 2022, and are currently gearing up to negotiate our first union contract. Bargaining is the name of that process where our bargaining team meets with management’s negotiation teams and runs through proposals to reach agreements on our… Read More »What does the bargaining process look like?

The intent of status quo is to preserve our current benefits and conditions as a floor (not a ceiling) and prevent unilateral changes made without the consent of the housestaff, but your PD may be hearing something different from the employer. It is important for you to know that: It is untrue to make the blanket… Read More »My PD told us we can’t make any changes because of ‘status quo’…

Union ballots are being counted today, May 2! It’s a good day (to fight the system). Thanks to everyone for all their hard work in getting to this point, and to everyone who voted and participated! Share our vibes with the playlist below. Here’s a brief rundown of how the NLRB vote count process works:… Read More »🎉 It’s election day!

On 2/22/2022, we demanded voluntary recognition of our union with supermajority (>65%) support (nearly 1000 people signed cards indicating support!) Stanford denied this request, so on 2/24/2022 we filed for an election with the NLRB (National Labor Relations Board) The election is completely confidential (no one will know your vote) The election is won by… Read More »Wait, what’s happening with this election?

Our union is only as strong as our members – being a member will add to our collective strength, help us stand up to an employer like Stanford, and allow you to have a say on what we do with this power. A stronger, united membership gives us the leverage to win what we’re fighting… Read More »Do I have to join the union?

No one pays dues until the union membership has voted to ratify a contract. Resident unions have never ratified a contract with benefits that do not outweigh the cost of dues. CIR dues are 1.6% of base pay and are used to support the infrastructure of collective bargaining (e.g. pay for things like contract negotiations,… Read More »How much does a union cost? Do I have to pay dues?

Unity break success! Thank you to everyone who was able to attend and show support at our unity break on May 17. We had nearly 250 housestaff in attendance, as well as CRONA nurses (including an amazing speech of support). We even had attendings from multiple departments who encouraged their residents/fellows to go! In addition,… Read More »Unity break success!

Several months ago we were invited to speak at this month’s School of Medicine Faculty Senate meeting to help answer faculty’s questions about our union and why we unionized. We wanted to make clear that our goal is to work alongside our program leadership to make Stanford the premiere institution to train at, by giving… Read More »Stanford Daily – Motivations for unionization among Stanford resident and fellow physicians

With great joy, we announce that Stanford residents and fellows have overwhelmingly voted to unionize, with 835 yes votes (80% of all votes cast) and a 73% turnout (1049/1442 eligible voters). We are proud to claim our legal right to a seat at the table. Our vote represents our call for restoration of purpose by giving us… Read More »We won!

Well, this has been hard to write. As three of the housestaff organizers (Grant, Jessie, and Lawrence), we also served as your GME Council housestaff representatives for the past year. We have debated the benefit of openly sharing our experience with the current “process for dialogue.” Given the continued misleading messaging from GME regarding the… Read More »Can’t we just go through the normal GME channels?

Organizing a union is all about building community and solidarity. Currently the majority of interactions between housestaff are in the settings of consults and admissions, often in the middle of the night and sleep-deprived. Better working conditions negotiated with our contract can help to alleviate burnout, and our union is an opportunity to get to… Read More »How can we avoid tensions between departments, which already exist in our hospital and are harmful to teamwork?

Debunking misleading statements and focusing in on why we need to harness our collective voice for real change. Dear Residents and Fellows of Stanford Health Care, As your GME Council housestaff representatives (GMEC reps), we wanted to clarify some important points raised in recent communications between the GME office and the housestaff and their program… Read More »Why we’re unionizing – from your fellow housestaff

 Resident salaries have been consistently falling over the last 40+ years in terms of cost of living – residents today have 29% less disposable income after correcting for inflation than residents in 1970, despite continuing increases in educational debt. Having a union will help us maintain good working conditions and advocate for ourselves (e.g. vaccine roll-out,… Read More »Residency is supposed to be hard – shouldn’t we just suck it up?

We need everyone’s support to give all housestaff a voice. Working conditions may not be the same in all programs, and may not always stay the same. Residency/fellowship experiences can be extremely dependent on program leadership, and our current benefits do not have the protections of a union contract. The best time to form a… Read More »I’m pretty happy/I’m graduating soon – why should I support a union?

How do we really know OUR interests will be represented? Our union is led by housestaff – not CIR staff. The union organizing effort at Stanford was initiated by housestaff and led by housestaff (find us on the big purple posters in the workrooms!) Residents/fellows will nominate housestaff representatives to be leaders of our union… Read More »Is CIR a third party?

A union is a group of workers who use their collective strength/voice to bargain for better working conditions. A union gives us more power and leverage to effect changes on everything we want—from better pay and benefits to improving patient care and more—than we would have if we negotiate as individuals. What is CIR? The… Read More »What is a housestaff union?

We are unionizing to have a stronger voice and federally protected right to bargain about issues that matter to us, our colleagues, and our patients. The individual issues are up to us – what do you feel strongly enough about that you would fight for it? More workplace protections? Better benefits? Improved parental leave? Speaking… Read More »What can we bargain for?

We did it! Stanford housestaff have overwhelmingly voted to ratify our historic first union contract! With the majority of members voting, 99.7% voted YES! See the draft of the full contract here. SHC-CIRSEIU-CBA 2023-2026 Highlights: 21% increase in total compensation over the next three years – interns starting in 2025 will be making six figures!… Read More »Contract ratified!

After our federal mediation session on 12/6, your bargaining team is excited to announce that we have reached a tentative agreement with SHC management at the bargaining table. What is a tentative agreement? A tentative agreement (TA) is a proposed collective bargaining agreement that has not yet been ratified (approved) by a union vote. Our… Read More »Tentative agreement reached!

We are back with a BIG bargaining update, and we’re so excited to share the details with you. WE ARE SO CLOSE! First our wins! CIR officially reached tentative agreements on all non-economic proposals with Stanford. Crucially, the administration finally agreed to provide safe transportation home for all housestaff at all rotation sites. Now we are focused… Read More »Updates – first federal mediation session

During our 6/29 bargaining session, Stanford representatives finally delivered their counter-proposals to our economic package, telling us bargaining is about “meeting in the middle. If that is true, why do their economic counter-proposals, supposedly the result of extensive market research and due diligence, include cuts to our benefits? Here’s what happened: After giving us a… Read More »Stanford insults us with their economic response

You may notice a vague reference on Medhub about an “Enclosed Notice to Employees”. What this actually means is that Stanford committed an Unfair Labor Practice by refusing to send us essential bargaining documents about health insurance, meal stipends, vacation/time off, and housing stipends – documents that we requested back in June 2022. They got… Read More »Stanford violates federal labor law

In the C-suite perched high atop the 3rd floor gardens and physically separated from the hospital, a group of residents delivered hundreds of “love letters” on Valentine’s Day to Stanford Healthcare admin regarding what they wanted in their new contract. Admin did not want to face us – they stayed in their offices and sent… Read More »What would you love to see in your contract?

Bargaining sessions are currently occurring every other Thursday, alternating between day (12PM – 3PM) and evening (5PM – 8PM). Import our shared calendar here. To get the Zoom link, search your non-work email for an email sent by ‘Stanford Housestaff Union’. The Zoom link may be different for each session. Why should I join? Besides… Read More »How do I attend the bargaining meetings?

“It’s helpful to know that surgeries happen in the morning…” Your bargaining team met with SHC management on November 17th for our first negotiation session. We opened this session with our vision for a new social and economic contract. With patient care and housestaff recruitment top of mind, we highlighted that both housestaff and SHC… Read More »First bargaining meeting – responses from management

It’s been two months since we requested to start bargaining meetings with SHC, with the goal of having open and transparent bargaining sessions in the evenings, when all residents can attend and hear what we are fighting for. In the back-and-forth since then, SHC has 1) refused to meet in the evenings, citing ‘concern’ for… Read More »First bargaining session – November 17

October 20 should have been our first bargaining meeting with Stanford, but we’re still waiting for them to come to the table. We requested this date weeks ago, but they have refused to have evening meetings with our full bargaining committee. Stanford has instead insisted on 9 AM meetings with limited representation, in efforts to… Read More »Stanford delays first bargaining meeting

Your bargaining team has been hard at work drafting up a contract proposal based on the bargaining surveys that you all filled out! We’ve submitted a formal request to bargain on things like increased wages, housing stipends, and parental leave, but among other absurd responses, Stanford is pushing to make negotiations opaque, infrequent, and difficult for… Read More »October 2022 bargaining updates

What’s going on, what’s bargaining, and how does it work? We won and certified our union in May 2022, and are currently gearing up to negotiate our first union contract. Bargaining is the name of that process where our bargaining team meets with management’s negotiation teams and runs through proposals to reach agreements on our… Read More »What does the bargaining process look like?

What do you want included in your first union contract? Let us know by filling out the bargaining survey [http://bit.ly/stanfordbargainingsurvey] created by your co-residents and fellows on the Bargaining Team. Our initial contract proposals will be based on the results of this survey. The survey will be deidentified by staff such that no residents (or Stanford) will have access to individual responses.… Read More »Fill out your bargaining survey by August 12!

CRONA (the nurse’s union at Stanford) has been bargaining for their contract, which expired March 31, 2022. Please see below for the issues they have been bargaining for, including better staffing and mental health support, and the hospital’s response. After management failed to agree to a contract with these changes, on April 8, 2022, a… Read More »What’s going on with CRONA?

$12k-13k/year housing stipends, COVID impact pay, 8 weeks paid parental leave, $2M patient care funds, and more – check out some of the previous union contract wins from CIR-affiliated programs across the country. If you’re asking, “why should we ask for more” – read on to see how our salaries actually compare to those of our… Read More »What have other unions won?

No – this is not a ‘one-size-fits-all’ situation, but rather ‘no specialty left behind’. CIR contracts regularly ensure that all housestaff receive the same base level of benefits regardless of program, but do not prevent departments from giving benefits on top of that (e.g. additional department-specific housing or meal stipends). For example, you may hear… Read More »Will a union prevent my program from giving additional benefits?

Only if we all voted on a contract that gave us less…employers often emphasize that with contract negotiations we could end up with more, or less. “Did you know, that when a union enters negotiations, our wages could go up? Or they could go down.” “Wait my wages could go up?” “Or they could go… Read More »Could we really end up with less?

We are unionizing to have a stronger voice and federally protected right to bargain about issues that matter to us, our colleagues, and our patients. The individual issues are up to us – what do you feel strongly enough about that you would fight for it? More workplace protections? Better benefits? Improved parental leave? Speaking… Read More »What can we bargain for?

The intent of status quo is to preserve our current benefits and conditions as a floor (not a ceiling) and prevent unilateral changes made without the consent of the housestaff, but your PD may be hearing something different from the employer. It is important for you to know that: It is untrue to make the blanket… Read More »My PD told us we can’t make any changes because of ‘status quo’…

Well, this has been hard to write. As three of the housestaff organizers (Grant, Jessie, and Lawrence), we also served as your GME Council housestaff representatives for the past year. We have debated the benefit of openly sharing our experience with the current “process for dialogue.” Given the continued misleading messaging from GME regarding the… Read More »Can’t we just go through the normal GME channels?

One of the big disadvantages we have is that sending union-related information to or from Stanford housestaff emails is forbidden – meaning we cannot ‘reply all’ to Larry Katznelson’s email, email the housestaff-wide mailing list, or email our colleagues at their Stanford email addresses. Thus we have to rely on other methods such as this… Read More »Why aren’t you replying to those emails to correct the misinformation?

Feeling confused by the messaging from the hospital? Here’s our point-by-point response. Stanford Health Care and GME have sent out this FAQ to program leadership, residents, and fellows. To provide balanced information and share insights from our year-plus of organizing efforts, your housestaff organizers compiled our answers to the same questions to help dispel misleading… Read More »Responses to GME ‘FAQs’

No! Stanford administration is claiming that “this direct relationship between our physician trainees and their clinical departments will change should our residents and fellows unionize because that relationship will then be between Stanford Health Care and the union”. As housestaff, why would we want our union to interfere with productive conversations between housestaff and their… Read More »Will a union come between me and my department?

No! While our union will have greater negotiating power and be more effective with strong unified membership, no one is required to join the union. If you do not want to be a member, you will still benefit from any contract that the union negotiates and will thus pay a fair share fee (percentage of… Read More »Can I be fired for not joining a union?

No – this is not a ‘one-size-fits-all’ situation, but rather ‘no specialty left behind’. CIR contracts regularly ensure that all housestaff receive the same base level of benefits regardless of program, but do not prevent departments from giving benefits on top of that (e.g. additional department-specific housing or meal stipends). For example, you may hear… Read More »Will a union prevent my program from giving additional benefits?

Our union is only as strong as our members – being a member will add to our collective strength, help us stand up to an employer like Stanford, and allow you to have a say on what we do with this power. A stronger, united membership gives us the leverage to win what we’re fighting… Read More »Do I have to join the union?

Only if we all voted on a contract that gave us less…employers often emphasize that with contract negotiations we could end up with more, or less. “Did you know, that when a union enters negotiations, our wages could go up? Or they could go down.” “Wait my wages could go up?” “Or they could go… Read More »Could we really end up with less?

First, the union card and vote are confidential! You do not have to be a vocal member to support unionization. Additionally, it is illegal (per the National Labor Relations Board) for an employer to retaliate against an employee for union activities. They cannot ask you if you support the union, or threaten any punitive action… Read More »Can I face retaliation for supporting a union?

No – strikes by physicians are very rare and are a chapter decision, requiring a strike authorization vote from its members. We could set a threshold at Stanford of requiring > 90% support, or higher – it is up to us if we want this to even be an option. Strikes are a measure of… Read More »Do I have to strike?