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Amid rising labor militancy over the past few years, one group of workers has gone under the radar: medical residents. Also known as resident physicians or housestaff, medical residents are doctors who have finished medical school and are working in hospitals as apprentices on the path to getting independently licensed. They are the patient-facing backbone of hospital operations, working extremely long hours under stressful conditions for mediocre pay.

Over the past few years, from California to New England, medical residents have been unionizing and striking by the thousands. They’ve composed some of the largest new units to unionize in the United States. They labor in the strategic sector of health care, which intersects with multiple struggles around social justice and corporate power. They have the potential to work in coalition with others to address public health and other issues. Thousands of newly unionized medical residents will bring their union consciousness into the rest of their careers.

What do medical residents do? What’s behind their rising unionization? What challenges do they face at work? How do their struggles connect with larger struggles in society and the labor movement? To discuss these questions and more, Truthout spoke with two union medical residents who represent a cross-section of this growing part of the labor movement.

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Dr. Mahima Iyengar is a chief resident of internal medicine and pediatrics at Los Angeles General Medical Center. She is the secretary-treasurer of the Committee of Interns and Residents (CIR), a local of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). CIR/SEIU is the largest housestaff union in the U.S., representing over 40,000 resident physicians and fellows. The union has existed for decades, but has recently seen an influx of thousands of new unionized members.

Dr. Armin Tadayyon was an anesthesiology resident at the University at Buffalo’s affiliated hospitals who helped lead a successful 2023 union drive and 2024 strike of UB residents, which resulted in their first contract. Buffalo residents are affiliated with the Union of American Physicians and Dentists. Tadayyon graduated from his residency this summer. The two interviews were conducted separately and have been edited into a roundtable format. The following transcript has also been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Derek Seidman: Can you explain who medical residents are and the role of their labor within hospitals?

Armin Tadayyon: A medical resident is essentially a medical school graduate who is doing further training to become licensed and eventually board certified to work independently in their specialty. It’s akin to vocational training.

Medical residents are........

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