On the picket line

Union drive by Philly resident and fellow physicians

Resident and fellow physicians at four major health care institutions in Philadelphia are organizing with the Committee of Interns and Residents, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union. In a poignant gesture, the doctors from the four institutions announced their decision to seek union representation in front of the former Hahnemann University Hospital. Hahnemann was a Philadelphia safety net hospital serving the very poor.

Hahnemann was sold to American Academic Health, whose mismanagement led to bankruptcy, forcing the closure of the 150-year-old institution. The closure left Hahnemann resident physicians scrambling to find another hospital to complete their training.

CIR is the fastest growing health care union in the U.S., with over 34,000 physician members; its membership has doubled since 2019. The COVID-19 pandemic is a major factor in that rise. The pandemic has greatly increased the personal risk to health care workers as they battle administrations for proper safety equipment and compensation.

The 3,000 physicians at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Temple University Hospital and Einstein Healthcare Network are following the example of 1,400 resident and fellow physicians from Penn Medicine who joined CIR in 2023.

Medical school graduates are accepted into hospital residency or fellowship programs for further training. They gain practical experience in caring for patients, often in a specialty field such as pediatrics or surgery. It is a significant commitment, requiring very long hours with low compensation. Many residents work 80-hour weeks and put their personal lives on hold for the three to four years they are in the programs.

Hospitals rely on these doctors to staff their facilities and to shoulder a large portion of physician-to-patient care. The CHOP, Jefferson, Temple and Einstein physicians know that better working conditions for them will create better outcomes for their patients.

All will benefit from a union contract similar to what Penn Medicine residents negotiated, which gave workers salary increases between 25% and 28%, eight weeks of parental leave and reimbursements for getting ride-hailing services home after long shifts. The agreement also included a commitment to stock personal protective equipment and other supplies.

Museum workers win first contract

The Philadelphia Please Touch Museum is a well-known museum where children are encouraged to play with the many hands-on exhibits, such as a kid-sized grocery store and a miniature Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) bus.

Workers at the museum voted in a union almost two years ago, becoming members of Philly Cultural Workers United Local 397, part of District Council 47, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) union. This November, they finally won and ratified their first contract. Details include a 19%-24% salary increase over four years, four weeks paid parental leave (a jump from zero), vacation and sick time rollovers and reduced cost share for health insurance.

In 2022, the Philadelphia Museum of Art workers, also AFSCME members, held a three-week strike before winning and ratifying their first contract. This has encouraged other museum workers to unionize.

Whole Foods workers organize

Workers at a Whole Foods store in Philadelphia have petitioned the National Labor Relations Board for a union election. They are seeking representation by United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1776. If they win, this will be the first unionized Whole Foods store in the U.S.

Whole Foods is an upscale market owned by Amazon. Complaints about conditions at the store are similar to those of warehouse workers at Amazon’s Staten Island, New York, warehouse — who successfully organized as the Amazon Labor Union, led by union activist Chris Smalls, in 2022. The ALU has since merged with the Teamsters.

Workers at the store say that wages are so low they can’t even afford to shop there. Many shoppers order online, a practice started during the pandemic. Workers scramble to fill orders in a warehouse-like setting and are monitored according to a numerical quota system. The pace required to maintain quotas leaves little time for breaks.

Cashiers are also subjected to a quota system of the number of items scanned per minute. Elderly and disabled cashiers sitting at their workspaces are frowned upon by management. One store employee said workers “are really held down to this numerical value that they’re assigned. It seems like they’re just constantly worrying about it, and it’s not good — I don’t think for anybody, for their mental health or anything.” (salon.com, Nov. 26)

The Whole Foods store is located in the Spring Garden section of Philadelphia, an area that has undergone gentrification with luxury apartment buildings for the wealthy. The area is bordered by the Benjamin Franklin Parkway near the Philadelphia Art Museum.

The store is steps away from a green space which was  the site of a homeless encampment that received national attention in 2020. The encampment lasted for months until the city forcibly cleared it, bowing to pressure from those wealthy gentrifiers. The mayor and city officials made hollow promises to address the housing crisis in the city. No significant plan has been developed four years later.

Workers at the Philadelphia Whole Foods think unions are vital to the whole working class and hope they can inspire other stores to organize.