UC resident doctors win historic system-wide contract

By Lila Swanson

More than 6,400 resident and fellow physicians across the University of California reached a tentative agreement with UC Health recently, establishing for the first time a single contract covering house staff across the entire UC system—the largest public academic healthcare system in the country.

The deal, announced July 16 by the Committee of Interns and Residents (CIR/SEIU), pairs an 18% salary increase with provisions the union says are aimed at patient safety and access to care.

Among the most notable elements of the agreement are protections that extend beyond the physicians themselves. The contract includes language intended to shield immigrant patients, so that community members can seek care with less fear of immigration enforcement, along with provisions addressing emergency-room capacity to help ensure patients are seen in a timely manner. UC’s resident and fellow physicians serve roughly 2.5 million Californians each year.

The agreement also addresses a long-standing workplace safety concern: access to properly fitting radiation-protection equipment. Physicians who work near radiation require lead shielding fitted to their bodies, and residents have said that basic safeguard was inconsistently provided.

“Resident working conditions are patient care conditions,” said Dr. Gloria Tavera, a gastroenterology fellow at UCSF, in the union’s press release. “With a contract that covers all residents and fellows at the UC’s, we are more united than ever in ensuring that we keep the pressure on administration to ensure that the contract language is enforced—for our futures, for the futures of those coming up behind us, and for our patients’ futures.”

The tentative agreement caps nearly a year of negotiations. UC’s resident and fellow physicians had previously been covered by separate contracts negotiated hospital by hospital—a patchwork that, according to the union, left doctors at different campuses with different protections. Consolidating into one systemwide bargaining unit was a central goal of the campaign.

On compensation, the physicians secured an 18% salary increase over the life of the contract, a raise the union says is significant for early-career doctors managing California’s high cost of living and, in many cases, substantial student debt. The agreement also preserves a $30,000 fertility and family-planning benefit, first established at UCSF in 2022 and later expanded across the system, which the union said UC had sought to eliminate during negotiations.

The bargaining process included rallies, unfair-labor-practice allegations against the university, and a confidential mediation. In June, unionized doctors staged eighteen coordinated “unity breaks” at UC sites and neighboring hospitals in Sacramento, San Francisco, Fresno, Riverside, Los Angeles, Irvine and San Diego, accusing management of bargaining in bad faith.

“We’re positive in knowing that, from the unity breaks and then moving forward, escalating collectively with our members really did put pressure on the UC to settle,” Kate Goyette, CIR/SEIU California communications coordinator, told media.

Dr. Diana Dayal, an emergency medicine resident at UCLA, called the deal a strong starting point in the union’s press release, saying physicians would continue advocating for patients across the UC system “from San Diego up to Sacramento.”

The agreement arrives amid broader labor activity at the university. Earlier this year, AFSCME 3299, which represents patient-care workers across the system, reached its own tentative agreement, narrowly averting a planned strike.

The CIR bargaining team will now bring the tentative agreement to the full membership, with a ratification vote expected in early August. If ratified, the contract takes effect immediately.