Bronx, NY – Resident physicians at St. Barnabas Hospital are planning to take their concerns all the way to the top, visiting CEO and President Scott Cooper today in hopes of moving forward quickly with a vote on whether to have a union.

As the Daily News reported last week, despite 87 percent of the residents signing a petition for the hospital to recognize the Committee of Interns and Residents (CIR) as their union, the hospital has opted to hire a Manhattan law firm and file appeals before the National Labor Relations Board.

As the Daily News explained:

“Interns and resident doctors at St. Barnabas Hospital, the kind who pull all-nighters and work through weekends at less than a third of their superiors' salaries, are fighting hospital efforts to block them from unionizing.”

For the past few weeks, the residents have been distributing flyers in the hospital and in the community, calling attention to the hospital’s wasteful spending on a Manhattan law firm to prolong the NLRB process and delay an election at a time when health care dollars are more urgently needed to provide health care to an increasing number of patients affected by the economic downturn. They’ve also begun to meet with elected officials to ask them to support the residents’ choice to join a union.

Today, they plan to express their concerns directly to Cooper and ask him to allow for a quick election. The ultimate goal is for the CEO to allow residents to have a voice in providing better patient care, and address their concerns about the recent increase in the employee portion of insurance premiums by the administration, as well as ongoing safety issues in the hospital.

Dr. Nailah Thompson, CIR Executive Vice President, is available for interviews in person or by phone today and tomorrow. Contact CIR at 212-356-8100 x126 or tfoley@cirseiu.org to set up interviews.