University of Colorado Faces Labor Complaint from Medical Residents

By John Ingold | The Colorado Sun

The University of Colorado Housestaff Association, which represents medical and surgical residents and fellows, has filed a complaint with state labor officials.

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.

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