History of the Housestaff Association
The Housestaff Association (HA) was originally formed in 1964 to provide for collective bargaining between University of Washington residents and our employer. Since the founding, the HA has primarily focused on improving residents' work environment.In 1964 residents nearly came to a strike from frustration with their low salaries, no fringe benefits, having to pay for call rooms, and no grievance procedures. The Housestaff Association (HA) was originally formed for the sole purpose of collectively bargaining for improved work conditions. Through collective bargaining, and with the support of then Dean Aagard, the HA bargained for a raise and increased benefits.
During 1974-75, residents were getting fired without a grievance procedure or any sort of due process, so the HA pushed for a bonafide contract. A Memorandum of Understanding was drawn up but never became official before the residents promoting an official contract completed their residency.
In 1975-76, residents petitioned the UW for collective bargaining rights, but the Board of Regents demanded two things before any action: (1) a study to be done by the Provost's office researching the residents' complaints and (2) a policy statement be developed by the School of Medicine describing its policy towards housestaff. The study was done by an Mr. Olswang, an attorney backed by the Provost's office, who took call with residents and did a survey. The results of his survey were treated as "confidential information" and were kept secret from the HA at that time. Six years later, the HA was given a copy of the study by individuals in the AMA Chicago office. Olswang notes in his report:
"I make no claim to be able to recommend that the hours worked by residents are too many or too few to achieve the end result of preparing excellent doctors...I can only point out that the hours worked are long and often consist of numerable hours in succession without sleep. Combine this with the inability to secure meals, lower pay than their peers, seemingly inadequate communication mechanisms, and little self representation by residents, and the outcome is some dissatisfaction by residents....In conclusion, the allegations of severe work load by house officers resulting in improper patient care crystallize the overdue recognition that house officers are not being listened to collectively at this time. While there is no indication of improper patient care, it is clear that cooperation and mutual decision making between the house officers and the School of Medicine will produce greater satisfaction on the part of house officers so as to make patient care more reliable than it is presently."
In the mid-1970's, the result of Olswang's study led the dean's office to generate a policy statement alluding to the importance of housestaff needs and improving benefits.
Throughout this time residents pushed for an official contract, and what came out of many meetings between HA residents, the medical school deans, AMA representatives and many lawyers, was a document called the "Blue-Book." This became the first draft "contract" for residents and provided for "mutual consent" (i.e., between residents and the UW School of Medicine). According to HA archives, the UW attorneys negated this document, eliminating the "mutual consent" and contractual language on the grounds that it represented acknowledgment of collective bargaining with residents.
In 1979 the "Blue Book" in its severely revised form was adopted by the HA residents and UW representatives who formed the Housestaff Advisory Committee. In 1980, the advisory committee stopped meeting, the grievance procedures faded away, the School of Medicine never publicized the Blue Book, and residents found themselves again quite demoralized without a contract and without any basis for negotiation.
By 1980, residents were fed up with the UW administration for not recognizing the Housestaff Association as the nonexclusive collective bargaining agent for residents. Under the threat of strike, and with much local publicity in The Seattle Times and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the HA negotiated for a contract guaranteeing improvements in work conditions such as meals provided while on call, a grievance procedure, and better pay and fringe benefits.
During the 1980-81 wave of resident activism, there was much discussion on the legality of residents negotiating as a collective bargaining unit. At that time residents were clearly defined as students without the power or legal backing to collectively bargain. It was only under the threat of a resident strike, which would have effectively shut down the several of the city hospitals, that university officials were forced to recognize the residents as a nonexclusive collective bargaining group.
Since the early 1980's the HA has been in a state of dormancy. The current "Resident Position Agreement" (RPA) serves as an annual contract of employment for all UW residents. Elected representatives from the HA used to be the individuals who would meet with representatives from faculty and the dean's office to "negotiate" the RPA. Sometime in the early 1990's the Housestaff Association ceased to exist, with no regular meetings and no officers. At that time, the RPA was revised to provide for an annual election of representative housestaff to serve on a Housestaff Advisory Committee. The Housestaff Advisory Committee was recently renamed the Institutional Resident and Fellow Advisory Committee (IR/FAC).
The IR/FAC is made up of 8 residents and 8 faculty. The charge of the committee is to annually review the RPA (i.e., residents' contract) and make recommendations for changes to the UW. Any recommendations are reviewed and decided upon by individuals in the School of Medicine, often referred to as "the lawyers." The IR/FAC has no authority to enforce it decisions and the residents on that committee have no ability to negotiate the Residency Position Appointment. The faculty on this committee are generally sympathetic and supportive of residents, but most are without the immediate decision making authority to enforce changes or recommendations. In the recent experience of residents on this committee, when recommendations for changes to the RPA have been made, the recommendation goes to the unidentified "lawyers" for review, and there is no negotiation. The final version of the residents' contracts comes out each Spring for residents to sign on for another year.
The eight residents elected to the IR/FAC for the 1999-2000 year were eager to improve the dialogue and discussion about our work environment among the nearly 1,000 residents in the UW system. These eight IR/FAC residents drafted new bylaws, elected interim officers, and resumed control of the Housestaff Association dues accounts. Those funds allowed the development of this web-page, which has been established to foster improved resident communication and a better work environment.
Currently, the active core of the Housestaff Association is comprised of a few committed residents. Our short-term goals are to establish a virtual meeting place with a web site, improve the association's visibility, and improve resident communication. Our longer-term agenda remains to be defined through resident dialogue and consensus. If you would like to improve your and your colleagues' work environment and, most importantly, improve the care we give our patients, then now is a great time to get involved in the Housestaff Association.
The Housestaff Association Executive Committee