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Resident physicians at Stanford Health Care have a very serious grouse: They say their working conditions are so strained that some of the doctors must work second jobs after putting in 80 hours a week at Stanford Hospital, and others can no longer afford an apartment, a union representative said this week.
The resident physicians, or "house staff," voted to join the Committee of Interns and Residents (CIR-SEIU) union in May 2022. The doctors held a demonstration on July 21, 2023, to shed light on what they claim has been a difficult series of months of bargaining without a resolution.
The union claims that Stanford Health Care has routinely engaged in stalling tactics at the table, deliberately ignoring the basic needs of their residents despite making a $788 million profit.
Meanwhile, the doctors say skyrocketing housing, food and child care costs are piled on top of existing educational debt, which, on average, is around $250,000 for medical school graduates.
"We are hopeful that Stanford will bargain in good faith. Our goal is to come away with a fair contract — one with the salaries and housing stipends we need to be able to live and work in Palo Alto," said Simran Kaur, former obstetrics and gynecology resident and a current complex family planning fellow, who is a member of the bargaining team."
"Over the past several months we have taken large-scale action and have shown Stanford that residents are struggling in real, material ways right now. We will continue to (put) pressure until we receive what we deserve," Kaur said.
The union negotiations include more than 1,300 resident physicians who work at other Stanford and non-Stanford sites across the Bay Area, including the outpatient clinics in both Redwood City and Emeryville.
Kaur said union representatives have laid out members' predicaments to Stanford.
"While bargaining, we have repeatedly heard heartbreaking stories about how residents are coping with our working conditions and compensation. One family had to move out of the apartment and start living out of a van; other residents would sleep in their cars during night shifts because there was no access to a call room," Kaur said.
"After working 80 hours per week in the hospital another resident had to get other jobs on the side to afford their rent," Kaur said.
Stanford couldn't be reached for a comment before publication of this article.
