450 residents participated in a 15-minute "unity break" outside hospitals across Seattle

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Acyl chloride

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In case anyone was wondering what had been happening with the UW Housestaff Union's current negotiation for a new contract, here is a quick summary of recent goings on.

There was a 15 min unity break across all sites yesterday. This is called a unity break because there is a no strike provision in the contract and this does not compromise patient care but draws attention to the issue. The prior contract expired in July and the Union has been actively negotiating with the university for the last several months. Current offers from the UW Labor relations team include 1% raises for 2 years followed by 0% the following. This is clearly unacceptable and does not even cover the rate of inflation, let alone living in one of the cities with the fastest growing increase in cost of living. This week the union has been working hard to raise awareness for these issues through a week of action that culminated in the unity break.

This story has been covered in a few different media outlets such as KOMO news. the stranger ran another story earlier describing the reasons behind the event. This opinion piece in Crosscut explains the resident perspective for why this was necessary. This all feels very timely given the recent story that Almost half of Seattle households make six-figure salary. UWHA - the resident union, did extensive research on the salary vs cost of living issue.
The union has made public their research packet which justifies the initial ask.

While not all residents are members of a union, the gains that resident unions have made across the country help move the needle ever so slowly towards shifting the culture of medicine in favor of residents being treated more humanely.

Social media links here in case anyone wants to follow- shares, likes and retweets are helpful in spreading the word: University of Washington Housestaff Association , UW Housestaff Association (@uwhousestaff) • Instagram photos and videos , https://twitter.com/uw_housestaff, University of Washington Housestaff Association

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In case anyone was wondering what had been happening with the UW Housestaff Union's current negotiation for a new contract, here is a quick summary of recent goings on.

There was a 15 min unity break across all sites yesterday. This is called a unity break because there is a no strike provision in the contract and this does not compromise patient care but draws attention to the issue. The prior contract expired in July and the Union has been actively negotiating with the university for the last several months. Current offers from the UW Labor relations team include 1% raises for 2 years followed by 0% the following. This is clearly unacceptable and does not even cover the rate of inflation, let alone living in one of the cities with the fastest growing increase in cost of living. This week the union has been working hard to raise awareness for these issues through a week of action that culminated in the unity break.

This story has been covered in a few different media outlets such as KOMO news. the stranger ran another story earlier describing the reasons behind the event. This opinion piece in Crosscut explains the resident perspective for why this was necessary. This all feels very timely given the recent story that Almost half of Seattle households make six-figure salary. UWHA - the resident union, did extensive research on the salary vs cost of living issue.
The union has made public their research packet which justifies the initial ask.

While not all residents are members of a union, the gains that resident unions have made across the country help move the needle ever so slowly towards shifting the culture of medicine in favor of residents being treated more humanely.

Social media links here in case anyone wants to follow- shares, likes and retweets are helpful in spreading the word: University of Washington Housestaff Association , UW Housestaff Association (@uwhousestaff) • Instagram photos and videos , https://twitter.com/uw_housestaff, University of Washington Housestaff Association

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