By Don McIntosh
Members of a unit of about 850 medical interns, residents and fellows at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU)—known collectively within their profession as “house officers”—have ratified their first-ever union contract since voting to join Oregon AFSCME in 2019.
Announced March 12, the three-year contract runs through March 2023. It raises salaries 2.5% a year, adds a fourth week of paid vacation, and for the first time commits OHSU to pay medical license and exam fees that can top $1,000 a year. It also includes a $2,000-a-year housing stipend, which increases 5% annually; a $1,000 relocation stipend for new staff; and $500 toward equipment doctors must purchase to do their work, like surgeon’s loupes.
Currently, house officers’ pay ranges from $67,500 to about $80,000, about the middle of a pay range that is set by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education.
Negotiations took almost exactly a year, and were completed with the help of a mediator.
