Resident doctors at Elmhurst Hospital Center are ending their three-day strike will return to work after reaching a tentative agreement.
The 165 doctors, employed at Elmhurst through the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and unionized with the Committee of Interns and Residents, claimed victory in the strike, which they said was motivated by the issue of pay parity.
On the picket lines Monday, the early-career doctors said their top priority was resolving what they saw as second-class treatment compared to doctors at other hospitals employed through the same program.
“Mount Sinai will now have to think twice about leaving Elmhurst behind and perpetuating these disparities for union doctors in the future,” said Sarah Hafuth, a resident doctor at the hospital.
The terms of their agreement include wage increases of 18% over three years, retroactive to November 2022, and a $2,000 ratification bonus, according to a news release.
The strike lasted for three days out of the authorized five. The residents had been in contract negotiations with Mount Sinai for more than 10 months.
“This fight was always about power, and Elmhurst residents are truly building that together,” Hafuth said. “Getting a multi-billion-dollar revenue employer like Mount Sinai to move this far really shows what our movement as residents can achieve — even up against the most flagrant union busting and profit-driven corporations.”
Mount Sinai has also agreed to negotiate on hazard pay and meal allowance in the new contract, which is set to expire in 2025.
Elmhurst was devastated in 2020 by COVID-19, and the situation there was a microcosm of a larger post-pandemic labor movement playing out in the healthcare industry. This strike was the first by physicians in in New York more than 30 years.
Tanathun Kajornsakchai, a psychiatry resident who worked at the hospital during the peak of COVID, said that he was proud that the union reached an agreement.
“Our little community of physicians was able to go and demand a multi-billion-dollar corporation to meet us at the table. And for them to move the way they did for us — I think that’s huge for us.”
Resident physicians at Mount Sinai Morningside West, also employed by the Icahn School of Medicine, authorized a strike vote on Monday. A date for the vote has not been set.
