The agreements, announced Feb. 16, cover resident physicians and fellows at University of California Davis; University of California Irvine; University of California Los Angeles; UCLA Olive View; University of California Riverside; University of California San Francisco; and UCSF Fresno.
“Just a few years ago, physicians in our different programs had never met, and those of us at UCSF Fresno and UC Riverside didn’t even have a union,” Caitlin Roake, MD, PhD, a second-year emergency medicine resident at UCSF Fresno, said in a news release. “Through our union, we built a tightly coordinated statewide campaign that has resulted in improvements that will help more than 5,000 doctors better serve their patients.”
According to the Committee of Interns and Residents, residents will receive salary raises to help keep up with inflation: a 6 percent initial raise, with 5 percent salary raises in 2023 and 2024. The union, a local of the Service Employees International Union, said other contract provisions include eight weeks of paid leave and four weeks of allotted vacation time.
The University of California praised the agreements.
“Negotiations were undertaken by each location individually with agreements concluded in late January and early February of this year,” the institution said in a statement. “Our new three-year contracts with CIR-SEIU provide generous wage increases and competitive pay and benefits. We believe these contracts honor the vital role of our resident physicians and fellows who have been on the front lines of California’s effort to fight the COVID-19 pandemic over the last three years.”
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