Physicians are latest group to unionize

Following in the footsteps of residents and fellows, employed physicians and allied health professionals are moving toward unionizing. Earlier this month, more than 550 physicians, PAs, and nurse practitioners at the Allina Health System in Minnesota petitioned to unionize. The group makes up more than 60% of the clinician workforce across the health system’s 61 primary and urgent care clinics. If approved, it would represent the nation’s largest private sector union for clinicians.

“A union is the only real path to making things better,” said Matt Hoffman, MD, a family physician at Allina Vadnais Heights Clinic. “People who provide care, who are on the front lines … we really do not have a voice in the system, and we can’t advocate for our patients on a system level.”

Physicians unions are becoming more common as more physicians sell their practices and become employed by hospitals/health systems. While physicians give up their autonomy, they want to ensure that they are not overworked to the point of burnout or jeopardizing patient care.

In the past few years, medical residents have turned to creating unions in the hopes of improving their working conditions. According to Bloomberg Law, “organizing efforts among physicians at private institutions, however, have lagged behind due to physicians being historically classified as supervisors or business owners, two groups unable to unionize in the private sector under the National Labor Relations Act.”