The organization that represents doctors-in-training at the University of Colorado has filed a complaint with state labor officials alleging that the school retaliated against it over its quest for collective bargaining rights.
The organization, the CU Housestaff Association, says the university broke off long-running discussions on a document that would have codified the Housestaff Association’s relationship with the university after the association announced its unionization goal.
It says the university also excluded it from meetings, blocked it from organizing activities and ended the practice of deducting dues for the organization from trainees’ paychecks.
“After we went public was when things started to break down a little bit,” said Dr. Simone Raiter, one of the Housestaff Association’s co-presidents. “It doesn’t seem coincidental from our perspective. So we felt it reached a point where we really needed something to be done about it.”
In a statement sent on behalf of the University of Colorado School of Medicine’s Office of Graduate Medical Education, the university denied the allegations of retaliation, noting that “leadership deeply values and appreciates our residents and fellows.”
“We are singularly focused on helping our residents and fellows become exceptional caregivers,” the statement read. “Retaliation against any person or group would be anathema to our entire mission.”
Long hours, high stress
The Housestaff Association represents more than 90% of CU’s 1,300 medical residents, fellows and other doctors-in-training. The members have all graduated medical school — thus, they hold the title of doctor — and are now gaining more real-world experience and specialty education before launching into the meat of their careers. The doctors work at UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital, as well as Denver Health, Children’s Hospital Colorado, and the Rocky Mountain Regional VA Medical Center.
The Housestaff Association takes its name from when such doctors-in-training lived at the hospital. That’s no longer the case, but residents and fellows often work long hours, sometimes as much as 80 per week.
Completing residency is a necessary step in a doctor’s career in order to obtain higher-ranking and better-paying jobs. That makes the training period feel frighteningly tenuous, Housestaff Association leadership says.
To address that, the association had been in discussions with CU on a memorandum of understanding that would have codified the association’s role in advocating for residents and fellows, sitting on disciplinary panels, participating in discussions around pay and other activities.
“We have nothing on paper that says that’s what we do,” Raiter, an interventional radiologist, said. “It’s just kind of a tradition.”
After more than a year of discussion, Raiter said the university broke off negotiations on the MOU this summer.
“I truly felt that we were still making progress, slowly but surely,” she said.
In its statement, the university said it halted talks after months of “good faith efforts by all parties” because the negotiations were ultimately unproductive.
“The two sides simply could not reach an understanding around this one document, but that does not affect our ongoing and frequent collaboration,” the university stated.
Dispute over dues
More complaints piled up. Raiter said the association was blocked from handing out free coffee during an appreciation week for trainees, during which it was also collecting signatures on a petition in support of collective bargaining. For a time it appeared the association would be kept out of participating in orientation for new residents and fellows this year, though the university eventually allowed it to participate, Raiter said.
Earlier this year, the university informed the association that it would no longer deduct association dues from trainees’ paychecks, forcing the association to come up with a new way to collect the funding that allows it to survive.
In an email to The Sun, School of Medicine chief of staff Mark Couch said the decision had nothing to do with the association’s advocacy. He said the university was concerned with the propriety of a public entity collecting dues on behalf of a private nonprofit, something he said “is not legally supportable under current law.”
“Additionally, we did not feel it was appropriate to collect money from residents without oversight of how the funds are spent,” Couch wrote in the email.
In response to advocacy by the Housestaff Association, the university has increased pay for residents and fellows in recent years.
A first-year resident now earns around $80,000 a year, while more experienced and higher-ranking doctors-in-training can make as much as $100,000 per year. Still, when factoring in the potential for 80-hour work weeks, that first-year pay comes in right around minimum wage in Denver, which is $18.81 per hour this year.
PROPWA protest
Public workers in Colorado do not have an automatic right to collective bargaining; their employers have to approve it.
But a law passed in 2023 gives public workers greater protection to organize and speak out. It is under this law, known as the Colorado Protections for Public Workers Act or PROPWA, that the association has filed its complaint with the state Department of Labor and Employment.
The complaint requests a hearing on the dispute.
Raiter said the goal of the complaint is to hold the university accountable and to stop what the association views as retaliation. Hopefully, she said, CU will return to the negotiating table to complete the MOU.
“We show up every single day to provide the best care we possibly can to our patients,” Raiter said. “And I just feel in general, we need to take better care of our trainees so we can take care of our patients.”
In its statement, the university said it continues to hold town hall meetings with residents to hear their concerns and feedback, and it continues to support the Housestaff Association’s participation in committees across the school and hospitals in which CU residents work.
“The School’s commitment to creating an outstanding training and working environment for our residents will never waver,” the university stated. “We remain committed to our strong relationship with all our residents and fellows.”