A union representing doctors in training at the University of Colorado School of Medicine filed a complaint with the state labor department on Wednesday, alleging that the university retaliated when its members sought to bargain as a group.
The Housestaff Association has collected dues through payroll deductions since 1987, said co-president Dr. Simone Raiter, a fourth-year resident in interventional radiology. The university abruptly stopped allowing the organization to do that in July, forcing union officers to track down interns, residents and trainees in fellowships to get their banking information, she said.
“This is something that we’ve done for decades. It’s very interesting, the timing,” she said.
The union, which represents about 1,300 young doctors, had gone public in February about its push for collective bargaining with the university. At the time, its leaders said their top priorities were increasing the stipends that doctors in training receive while providing care to patients, along with ensuring the university couldn’t cut the union out of conversations affecting its members.
Under Colorado law, unions can’t force quasi-public employers to recognize them by holding an election in the same way that people working for a private company can. That means CU would have to agree to give collective bargaining rights to the Housestaff Association.
The university declined to agree to collective bargaining, and the union alleged in its complaint to the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment that CU took steps to retaliate.
In addition to ending payroll deductions, Raiter said, the alleged acts of retaliation included walking away from discussions about a memorandum of understanding that would have formalized the union’s current role, plus canceling meetings at the University of Colorado Hospital and Children’s Hospital Colorado.
Mark Crouch, the chief of staff and associate dean of public relations at the CU medical school, said ending payroll deductions was a “necessary legal change.” The School of Medicine told the union three months in advance so it could come up with an alternative solution, he said.
The decision to stop working on a memorandum of understanding was due to the two sides reaching an impasse, despite good-faith efforts, he said, adding that the school didn’t push any hospitals to exclude the union.
“We simply could not reach an understanding around this one document, but that does not affect our ongoing and frequent collaboration,” he said in a statement.
The school’s leadership and the union continue to meet regularly, Crouch said.
“We remain committed to strengthening our relationship with all residents and fellows,” he said.
The state’s labor department can’t force CU to engage in collective bargaining. But Raiter said she’s hopeful that it will order the university to reinstate the payroll deductions and to continue negotiating a memorandum of understanding so that it can’t chip away at the union’s role during future disagreements.
“The MOU is a great place to start,” she said.
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