Penn’s medical resident union has a tentative contract with the university

Resident doctors training at the University of Pennsylvania Health System, who last year formed the first union of medical residents in the state, are now also the first in Pennsylvania to reach a tentative contract deal with their university, the union announced Tuesday.

The contract includes raises between 25% and 28% for residents, eight weeks of parental leave, and measures to combat fatigue among new doctors in Penn’s residency programs, who regularly work long hours but do not earn overtime pay.

Residents secured protections against being assigned “excessive” work outside of their job description, a guaranteed minimum of eight personal days, a $500 yearly stipend for meals, and Uber rides home after long or late shifts.

Penn will also reimburse residents for medical licensing fees and pay up to $1,000 a year for residents’ continuing education.

Many of the contract provisions “have to do with helping us to be humans,” said Spenser Chen, a second-year resident in internal medicine and pediatrics who participated in union bargaining sessions. He noted it’s difficult for residents to “do what we went into medicine to do” — namely, care effectively for patients — while battling burnout and struggling to pay for living expenses.

“I can’t find a doctor myself when I am spending 80 hours a week in the hospital,” he said. “I’m trying to advocate for patients on the hospital floors, but I can’t find an appointment myself because I don’t have the time to call to make an appointment.”

Penn’s residents will vote on whether to accept the contract this week, and it will likely go into effect later this fall.

Penn Medicine spokesperson Holly Auer said in an email that the health system is “committed to helping facilitate voting.” She declined further comment until that vote is conducted.

The contract deal comes amid a nationwide rise in union activity among physicians. The vast majority of the 1,400 residents and fellows at Penn voted to join the Committee of Interns and Residents in May 2023, becoming Philly’s largest new union in 50 years. Later that summer, unionized Rutgers University residents reached their first contract with the university.

And this summer, ChristianaCare attending physicians became the first in the Philadelphia area to unionize.

The unionization push is linked in part to shifts in how doctors practice medicine: In the early 1980s, three-quarters of doctors nationwide owned their own medical practices. But by 2022, those figures had flipped, with 74% of physicians employed instead by hospitals, health systems, and other corporate entities.

Union members said they’re hopeful they’ve laid groundwork for future residents at Penn to bargain for better benefits.

“Future residents won’t need to move from a place of fear when advocating for the things they need — they should move from a place of strength and worthiness, because we’ve put all the things in place so they can do that,” said Jamal Moss, a family medicine resident who participated in bargaining discussions.

» READ MORE: ChristianaCare doctors are riding the medicine unionization wave a year after Penn residents

During contract negotiations this year, salary increases were a major sticking point with the university, said Yombe Fonkeu, a neurology resident who participated in bargaining discussions.

In contract talks, residents spoke of how they struggled to pay for child care, housing, and parking while working demanding shifts with little time to mitigate stress.

“I think many people think that just because we’re a resident that we get paid a lot of money,” Moss said. “But we have the same issues as many of the families we see.”

By last month, after a year at the bargaining table without an agreement, tensions flared during several planned union actions. On Aug. 27, union staff hosted a burrito party at Pennsylvania Hospital to celebrate widespread union support among residents.

WHYY reported that hospital security moved union members off a sidewalk outside the hospital, saying the presence of five members on the sidewalk created an “access emergency.” Union staff said Penn security later formed a line to prevent them from handing out burritos. The union later filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board alleging that Penn had engaged in unfair labor practices.

That complaint was resolved through the new contract, union staff said.

Residents are “elated” by the provisions they were able to win, said Fonkeu, the neurology resident.

One resident who recently had a child reached out to him to say they felt “a weight had been lifted off their shoulder” after worrying about how they were going to afford child care.

“We’re extremely happy that Penn met us most of the way,” Fonkeu said. “Being at work and feeling elated, feeling light, feeling energized — it means everyone could take care of all people there, with this knowledge that the work they’re doing is being fairly compensated.”

Staff writer Abraham Gutman contributed to this article.