Take action now: The HOA is asking our members to reach out to Michigan Medicine CEO, Dr. David Miller to tell him that we will not accept the loss of the cell phone stipend.
Use our form to send a letter in seconds. Email Dr. Miller

UM Dials Up Concessions
Ever since Michigan Medicine announced that it was finally, after years of study, getting rid of personal pagers, the HOA has been in discussions with management about the potential impacts on our membership. 

The cell phone stipend is a hard-fought benefit negotiated by the HOA to prevent our members from having to use their personal phone for work without compensation. Roughly 98% of House Officers utilize this $720 yearly benefit. As a result of the HOA’s work, residents and fellows are one of the only job classifications in the hospital that receive a cell phone stipend. Other groups and unions such as nursing, PAs, most allied health positions, and even attending physicians do not receive a stipend for needing to use their personal cell phone for work purposes. 

Because nearly all House Officers receive the cell phone stipend, the HOA was informed that Michigan Medicine will not be offering an employer-issued phone to House Officers. All of our members will have to utilize their personal cell phones for all pages. When we asked if this was an attempt to get the HOA to give up its cell stipend, we were told that it was not. The HOA then surveyed its membership to see what House Officer feelings were on using their personal cell phone as a pager while receiving a stipend, versus getting an employer-issued phone. Roughly two-thirds of HOs who responded said they would prefer the stipend, with the remaining one-third wanting an employer-issued phone. 

Recognizing that we did not want to be an obstacle for the third of our members who wanted a phone, the HOA proposed to the hospital that we could amend our contract. Our proposal would allow House Officers to have an "either/or" option: take the cell phone stipend or obtain a phone from the employer. We made this offer contingent on the hospital agreeing that this closes the issue for next year's negotiations and that the cell phone stipend would remain an option for all those who want it.

But, in a reversal of everything they said before, the hospital would not commit to protecting the cell phone stipend, wanting to "preserve their right to have it as part of an economic package during negotiations". In other words, Michigan Medicine wants to try and cut the cell phone stipend, taking $720 each from nearly 1300 House Officers. The stipend was never actually safe; they just saw this as a step towards taking money from the pockets of employees.

This issue is about more than a cell phone stipend. This shows that the hospital is willing to say nice things about protecting the paychecks of House Officers – as long as it is not binding and in writing. This is why negotiations next year are so important. If Michigan Medicine will do this for something like our cell phone stipend, it is easy to see them doing the same for other hard earned wages and benefits in the HOA contract.

Take action now: The HOA is asking our members to reach out to Michigan Medicine CEO, Dr. David Miller to tell him that we will not accept the loss of a benefit. Use our form to send a letter in seconds. Email Dr. Miller