Stakeholder #2

Over time, the debate over resident pay rates at the University of Washington has reached people outside of the medical community.

Another group that has an interest in this issue is Seattle City Council.

"Seattle City Hall" 5/31/08 via wikipedia. Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 Unported.

Imagine, you have worked your way up in the government system and are currently serving in the Seattle City Council. A normal day in the office is constructed of piles of paperwork, smooth desk tops, the sounds of heels and quiet chatter, and then like always, you become aware of an issue in the city. Members of the city council offer a relatively unbiased view of the controversy because they are not working in the medical field. Their job is to consider the facts and think of ways to solve an issue. Five members released an official letter to the University of Washington president, asking her to consider compromising and meeting the requests of the UWHA. To the public, city council takes the role of a counselor, who considers issues and tries to facilitate agreements that will benefit the whole community, while minimizing repercussions or weaknesses in the agreements. City council members are elected by the community for four-year terms, so they represent the needs and priorities of Seattle. They are relatively easy to contact since they provide information on their website and hold community meetings and hearing.

Specific Claims

• Excerpt from letter: “We write to express our support for the University of Washington Housestaff Association (UWHA) and to urge you to meet the UWHA’s reasonable demands in contract negotiations”

• Except from letter: " These physicians provide an invaluable service to our community and deserve to be compensated fairly. Shockingly, however, many of these physicians early less than our city's hourly minimum wage"

• From article: "Councilmembers Mike O’Brien, Kshama Sawant, Lorena González, Nick Licata and Jean Godden sent a letter to UW President Ana Mari Cauce this month urging her to meet demands of the association that represents about 1,500 doctors who are UW residents and fellows"

Validity of Claims

• Primary source, the city council is supporting the UWHA's efforts and uses keywords such as "urge" and "reasonable" for appeal

• More use of key words such as "invaluable" and "fairly", this is where the main argument is presented that physicians should be paid more, appeal to logos because they cite the fact that physicians make less than minimum wage in some cases

• The author of the article is addressing the size of the community involved to appeal to the audience, because the more people involved, the more credible the issue

Similarities and Differences from other Stakeholders

• Very similar to the claims made by UWHA
• Physicians need to be paid more
• There must be an effort made to negotiate

• Slightly different from UW administration
• The city council wants to administration to cooperate and meet the requests of the UWHA
• The administration has stated some of the requests are not reasonable, like parking passes and fees

What role do you think credibility plays in claims?