On the Heels of Nurses’ Strike and Physician Action Across City, Mount Sinai Morningside and West Resident Physicians to Call Out Mount Sinai at Unity Break Event
New York–Resident physicians at Mount Sinai Morningside and Mount Sinai West, unionized with the Committee of Interns and Residents (CIR), will hold a unity break outside Mount Sinai West on Tuesday, April 25 to call on Mount Sinai to agree to a fair contract, including parity with the system’s non-union resident physicians. With Mount Sinai recently announcing another 6% raise for its non-union doctors–widening the distance between the doctors’ pay even farther–the physicians say they feel like the system is punishing them for being part of a union, while dissuading their counterparts from unionizing. According to the doctors, Mount Sinai is also refusing to discuss their proposals around hazard pay even after they carried their hospital through the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It feels like a slap in the face that after resident doctors risked their lives every day during the worst of the pandemic, Mount Sinai would refuse to use its massive resources to pay us fairly and would refuse to even have a conversation about hazard pay,” said Morningside/ West resident Dr. Brian Brown. “How can Mount Sinai continue to market itself the way it does after treating its union doctors and its nurses this way? It’s just not right, because our well-being is the well-being of NYC patients.”
WHAT: CIR represents more than 500 resident physicians at Mount Sinai Morningside/ West. They will hold a unity break, where they will speak out to call on Mount Sinai to agree to a fair contract, which they say will benefit both their well-being and patient care.
WHERE: Outside the front entrance of Mount Sinai West Hospital at 1000 10th Ave.
WHEN: At 6:00PM on Tuesday, April 25.
WHO: Resident physicians, allies, and Council Members Gale Brewer and Shaun Abreu.
Across the city, hundreds of CIR physicians are negotiating for fair contracts they say are about equity in conditions and care for doctors and patients, regardless of their race or zip code. Physicians at Elmhurst Hospital, who are also employed by Mount Sinai through a partnership with NYC Health+Hospitals, held their own unity break in February to call for pay and benefits parity with doctors at Mount Sinai Hospital on the Upper East Side. Doctors at Jamaica and Flushing Hospitals are also calling for fair contracts from their employer, MediSys.
The Committee of Interns and Residents (CIR) is the largest house staff union in the United States. A local of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), representing over 25,000 resident physicians and fellows. Our members are dedicated to improving residency training and education, advancing patient care, and expanding healthcare access for our communities.
