Dr. John Wust, a long-time obstetrician-gynecologist from Louisiana, and his group of over 100 doctors at an Allina hospital near Minneapolis voted to unionize in March. Dr. Wust stated that they felt they had no other legal solution available to deal with their unsustainable workload due to having less input at the hospital than ever before.
By October, a group that included about 400 primary-care physicians employed in clinics owned by Allina had also voted to unionize. The union that represents them, the Doctors Council of the Service Employees International Union, has stated that doctors from facilities across the country have inquired about organizing over the past few years.
The recent labor actions by doctors, nurses, and pharmacists are a response to being asked to do more as staffing decreases, leading to exhaustion and anxiety about putting patients at risk. Many of them feel that they are being smothered by the longer-term consolidation of health care companies, leaving them with little room to exercise their professional judgment.
John August, an expert on health care labor relations at the Scheinman Institute at Cornell University, acknowledged that health care corporate structures have not evolved to engage with health workers. Allina stated that it had made progress on reducing doctors’ workloads and was partnering with health care workers to address outstanding issues. CVS and Walgreens also stated that they were making targeted investments in pharmacies to improve staffing in response to employees’ feedback.
The trend of professionals in various fields protesting similar developments is particularly pronounced in health care, where practitioners once enjoyed high social status but now feel smothered by the management-labor hierarchy.
Dr. Alia Sharif, a colleague of Dr. Wust’s at Allina, emphasized the shift in perception, stating that they are all workers and are treated exactly the same way by large corporations, regardless of their elite status. This sentiment is echoed by other health professionals who have noticed a transition from having the leeway and resources to do their jobs properly to feeling micromanaged and powerless in big bureaucracies.
Dr. Ed Smith, a pharmacy intern and pharmacist at CVS, recalled a time when the stores were well staffed and pharmacists had time to develop relationships with patients. However, over time, consolidation and the rise of larger health care corporations left workers with less influence.
Similarly, Dr. Wust reminisced about his days in an independent practice where everyone was considered a partner, and workplace democracy was prevalent. However, consolidation in the health care industry has left workers feeling increasingly powerless.
The rise of pharmacy benefit managers led to cost-cutting measures and strict performance metrics for pharmacists, which they found increasingly difficult to ignore. The pharmacists began feeling more like retail clerks than medical professionals.
Similarly, doctors and nurses found themselves being evaluated and managed by corporate mandates and incentives tied to patients’ health outcomes. Many felt restricted in their ability to provide proper care and felt forced to comply with management theories borrowed from other industries.
The pandemic further exacerbated these strains as health systems struggled to add staffing despite promising to do so. This prompted many professionals who had never considered themselves candidates for union membership to organize themselves.
Doctors, nurses, and pharmacists are increasingly reaching out to unions for help in bargaining for their rights. The rise of union inquiries and the recent labor actions in the health care industry is a testament to the growing worker consciousness and the demand for better working conditions.
The recent surge in unionization and labor actions in the health care industry has shed light on the need to involve health workers in decision-making processes and to address their concerns about unsustainable workloads, strict performance metrics, and corporate management structures.
