UWHA and UW Labor Relations (LR) met for the eighth bargaining session on September 3rd. In between the August 20th and September 3rd sessions, LR sent UWHA their counter proposals for Articles 6, 21, 23, and 25 – in addition to letting UWHA know that the proposal for a “super stipend” would not be moving forward. LR supplied financial proposals for a number of previously held placeholders. UWHA brought forth counter proposals for Articles 5, 7, and 9. Tentative Agreements (TA) were signed for Articles 8 and 9.
Article 5 consisted of a few updates including a provision that would reinforce the onus on the employer to correctly administer dues to only eligible bargaining unit members. Currently, if the employer incorrectly takes dues out of the paycheck of a non-member, UWHA receives this money and has to later reimburse the non-member.
Counter proposals from UWHA on Articles 7 and 9, consisted of keeping a majority of the current contract language as is. Article 9 was agreed upon and signed.
LR submitted their first proposal on Article 21 that contained numbers, instead of placeholders. LR proposes no increases to the professional development fund, and removed the eligibility of rollover of funds between residency years. This manifests ultimately as a proposed pay cut from LR. This is a concerning proposal to UWHA as a large majority of residents allow their funds to rollover between years to pay for study materials, conferences, memberships, etc. that cost more than the $350 per year allotment.
LR presented few changes to their initial proposal on Articles 23 (Salary) and 25 (Transportation). LR proposes a 1% increase to salary for two of the three contract years, a home call stipend of $1800 per year, and a significantly smaller $100 per year travel allowance. When pressed, LR admitted that their travel allowance proposal was not based on any actual data.
Katie Bloom, Campus Compensation Consultant, UW presented a price out of the UWHA proposals and asked for guidance on many items in order to create further estimates. There is disagreement on many of the proposed costs and this conversation will continue.
The next bargaining session is scheduled for Thursday, September 5th from 3:00-5:00pm (abbreviated session) on the UW Campus. Mindy Kornberg, VP of HR, UW will be attendance to answer questions about the Childcare process at UW. UWHA encourages all members to attend.
Resident & fellow physician union - northwest/CIR/SEIU 