Rutgers’ resident physicians and fellows reach tentative contract deal

The union representing more than 1,100 Rutgers University resident physicians and fellows has reached a tentative agreement on a contract after almost a year of bargaining.

Members are voting on whether to ratify the agreement Thursday and Friday.

The tentative pact includes wage increases of 3.75% in the first year of the contract and 3.5% in both the second and third years. Residents in their first year of training, however, would get a 6.57% increase in the first year, the union said, bringing their annual salary to $68,273. The residents had sought a larger percentage increase in pay for first-years because their salaries were much lower, a union spokesperson said.

Pay would be retroactive to July 1, 2022, and the agreement also includes a $1,300 annual education stipend, an increase in the meal stipend to $25 per shift, and on-call pay increases, the union said. A task force also will be created to look at physicians’ mental health coverage, the union said.

» READ MORE: Rutgers’ faculty and grad student unions go on strike

“These gains will help lessen our financial stress, will mean we can be more present with our loved ones, and will mean our patients are seen by better rested doctors,” medical resident Stephanie Ruthberg said in a statement. “But our fight continues, and we intend to hold Rutgers accountable to addressing our mental health needs, which cannot wait.”

The university acknowledged that a tentative agreement had been reached but declined to comment on it until the pact was ratified.

In April, Rutgers’ unions representing more than 9,000 faculty and graduate student workers went on strike after 10 months of unsuccessful negotiations. The strike, which lasted a week, affected all three Rutgers campuses in Newark, Camden, and New Brunswick. That strike also included health clinicians, who continued to provide patient care and conduct critical research, but withheld voluntary work.

» READ MORE: Rutgers faculty ratify new contracts, after a one-week strike and marathon bargaining

Those unions ratified new contracts in early May.

The physician residents and fellows are part of a different union, represented by the Committee of Interns and Residents. They did not strike but had been holding demonstrations to bring attention to their situation. They work at Newark’s University Hospital, Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, and other facilities in that area.

Medical residents and fellows at Rutgers aren’t the only ones seeking better pay and working conditions. Those at the University of Pennsylvania Health System last month voted to unionize, becoming the first group of training doctors in Pennsylvania to do so.

» READ MORE: Penn Medicine residents voted to unionize, creating the biggest new union in Philadelphia in more than 50 years

“The road to this day was not easy, but it was worth it,” Kendall Major, a second-year internal medicine resident at Penn, told The Inquirer in May. “As the primary caregivers for many of our most vulnerable community members, we need a say in the decisions that impact our ability to care for patients.”

Residents said one of the things that pushed them to unionize was the extra shifts they had to cover during COVID-19 peaks. Their salary is fixed annually and they don’t earn extra pay for extra work. They often work more than 40 hours a week.