Around 100 picketers stood in front of Buffalo General Hospital on September 4, chanting and talking to reporters under the midday sun. They gripped signs with slogans like “Fair Contract Now” and “United For Our Patients.” Cars honked in support as they passed by, with some drivers thrusting fists into the warm air through their open windows.

It was the second day of a four-day strike by University at Buffalo (UB) medical residents over pay, benefits and working conditions. The strike was authorized by a resounding 93 percent vote after more than a year of bargaining attempts.

The striking medical residents in Buffalo are part of a rising wave of unionization among medical workers stretching from California to Vermont and spurred by demands for better compensation and working conditions.

Medical residents — also known as resident physicians or house staff — play a critical role within hospital operations.

Going into September 6, the last day of their strike, they are determined to push their demands with the hope of returning to the work they love — but on terms that feel more just and respectful.

“Nobody wants to be out here, but there’s no other option for us,” Armin Tadayyon, a fourth-year anesthesiology medical resident, told Truthout. “This is the only way that we can ensure that we are treated fairly.

Medical residents play a critical role within hospital operations. They work long and intense hours, including in intensive care units, to support treatment across hospitals, from internal medicine to general surgery and from psychiatry to neurosurgery.

These resident physicians have finished medical school, and their residencies function as apprenticeships towards becoming fully credentialed doctors. But they are also jobs, and hospitals heavily rely on them to function.

“The house staff are the linchpins of this health care system,” said Stuart Bussey, president of the Union of American Physicians and Dentists (UAPD), at the September 4 press conference. “They serve the community with blood, sweat and tears, and yet they receive monetary scraps.”

“We are stuck at their mercy, and their mercy is to be minimum wage, to have horrible health care benefits, have no retirement, have no hazard pay.”

In February 2023, UB medical residents announced their intent to unionize, and in May 2023 they won their union by a 270 to 114 (70 percent) vote. They are affiliated with the UAPD and, today, represent around 830 resident physicians who work in several Buffalo area hospitals.

Tadayyon, who helped organize the union, said a key driver behind unionization was poor compensation.

“We are the lowest paid residency program in the region,” he said, noting that with the long hours, some effectively make minimum wage.

The union also says that UB medical residents lack retirement benefits and meal and training stipends, and they have the worst health care policy in the region.

There’s also what Tadayyon calls the “bully culture” at work. Medical residents are not yet licensed to practice independently, but they can’t easily quit and go to another hospital. He........

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