New wave in healthcare as residents and interns organize with CIR-SEIU

Dr. Phil Sossenheimer, a Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellow at Stanford University and a representative of the Committee of Interns and Residents - Service Employees International Union (CIR-SEIU), joined the America’s Work Force Union Podcast to talk about the organization. Sossenheimer discussed the largest group of house staff in the Midwest to organize, and the first contract for Stanford residents.

Physicians are beginning to follow in the footsteps of some of their fellow healthcare workers. The CIR-SEIU represents residents and interns, also known as house staff, who are physicians not independently licensed to practice medicine. In the last 10 years, the union has more than doubled its membership, and now represents a third of all physicians in training across the country, Sossenheimer said. The goal of the union is to create a workplace that will sustain and provide for house staff so they can continue to provide for their patients.

Following the first wave of COVID-19 vaccinations in December 2020, which excluded the physicians on the front lines, the first seeds of forming a union were planted for Sossenheimer and his fellow physicians. After a successful lunchtime walkout, the physicians at Stanford began to organize and became affiliated with CIR-SEIU. After 13 months of fighting the university’s union-busting tactics, the physicians negotiated their first contract in December 2023. Among the improvements workers earned in their first contract was a 21 percent raise over the contract's life, which creates an opportunity for physicians to be able to afford to live in the area.

Sossenheimer believes we are starting to see a landslide of organizing efforts at large organizations nationwide. For example, he points to the successful organization of 1,300 new members at Northwestern University. This made the largest group of house staff to organzie in the Midwest, and the union vote was won by a landslide with 794 yes votes to 148 no votes. Sossenheimer discussed how these wins create an opportunity to teach new physician leaders about the importance of unionization and why activism matters.

Listen to the show above to hear more from Dr. Sossenheimer on CIR-SEIU.