About 500 doctors at Mount Sinai are set to strike Tuesday

About 500 resident physicians and fellows from a major Manhattan hospital are set to walk off the job Tuesday if their employer continues “bad-faith bargaining,” according to a press release from their union.

The group of early-career doctors work at Mount Sinai’s Morningside and West locations in Harlem. They claim that Mount Sinai has forced them to strike by failing to address their concerns over long hours and low pay — and then interfering with their right to take unified action.

“It’s important that our patients and the community understand that this strike is a last resort for us,” said Dr. Carla Calagua Bedaya, who works in the pathology department.

“For decades, resident doctors have avoided striking, but we have reached a point where enough is enough. We live in one of the most expensive cities in the world, have families, and we work 80-hour weeks – we deserve to be treated fairly.”

The latest salary offer from Mount Sinai would still put residents $2,000 to $5,000 behind their non-union colleagues at Mount Sinai, Sunyata Altenor, a spokesperson for the union representing residents and fellows said Monday afternoon.

If that doesn’t change, the pay gap would widen to about $10,000 for some specialties on July 1, when those non-union doctors are slated to get a raise, Altenor added. First-year, non-unionized residents at Mount Sinai Hospital make about $75,000, according to Gothamist's earlier reporting.

If the strike proceeds as planned, this will be the second group of Mount Sinai doctors to walk out within the past month. Over 150 resident physicians employed by Mount Sinai’s Icahn School of Medicine went on a three-day strike at Elmhurst Hospital Center in May — the first doctor’s strike in New York City since 1990.

In a statement Monday, representatives from Mount Sinai said they continue to negotiate in “good faith” with the union, and hope an agreement over a wage increase and benefits will be reached at a Monday afternoon bargaining session.

Should the strike take place, a hospital spokesperson said it will only have a minimal impact on patient care.

“We have contingency plans in place and all the provisions necessary to ensure patients at Mount Sinai facilities experience minimal interruption in the high-quality care they receive.”

The striking physicians are represented by the Committee of Interns and Residents (CIR), a local branch of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) which represents over 30,000 resident physicians and fellows across the country.

This story has been updated with additional information about salary. A previous version of this story misstated the name of a hospital within the Mount Sinai system.