Thanks for being willing to take this action on behalf of your colleagues. The quick story is:

• The hospital is getting rid of pagers, and moving to phone app based paging.
• Providers are offered a hospital-issued phone, or the option to use their personal device.
• Except, the hospital will not provide an employer-issued phone to any House Officer receiving a cell phone stipend (basically all of us).
• The HOA proposed a modification to our contract that would allow a choice between the stipend and an employer-issued phone.
• The hospital has maintained for months that it does not want to cut the $720 yearly cell phone stipend. When asked to put that in writing, the hospital refused.
• This means the hospital is openly saying they will try to cut the phone stipend during negotiations next year.
• The bait and switch is unacceptable.
• Send a message that we will not accept any proposed cuts to compensation in the next contract. Tell the hospital that we expect them to actually mean the things they say. Tell them we will not accept the elimination of the cell phone stipend.