While unionization among healthcare workers and professionals is a familiar phenomenon, resident physicians and fellows joining unions has only grown in recent years. Indeed, since the start of 2025 alone, at least five groups of resident physicians and fellows have opted to form unions at their health systems.

Members of the California Nurses Association in San Joaquin County's health system are set to strike Jan. 17.

Newark, Del.-based ChristianaCare resident and fellow physicians voted 111-52 to unionize, making them the first resident and fellow physician union in the state.

A second group of resident and fellow physicians in Rhode Island have voted to join the Committee of Interns and Residents, which is affiliated with the Service Employees International Union.

In what is becoming a harbinger of growing labor unrest among physicians, a third group of Philadelphia physicians has voted to join a union. Resident physicians and fellows at Jefferson Health voted to join the Committee of Interns and Residents, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union, the committee said in a Jan. 14 Facebook post.

Duluth, Minn.-based Essentia Health and SEIU Healthcare Minnesota & Iowa will reconvene negotiations Jan. 22-23 as employees continue an open-ended strike that began Dec. 9.

Members of the Michigan Nurses Association have reached a tentative agreement with Lansing-based University of Michigan Health-Sparrow, canceling a five-day strike that had been set to begin Jan. 20.

Harvard University researchers are calling for urgent regulatory reform to address the increasing number of physician strikes in the U.S.

Providence Medical Group is accusing the Pacific Northwest Hospital Medicine Association, affiliated with the Oregon Nurses Association, of failing to bargain in good faith.

NYC Health + Hospitals physicians have reached a tentative agreement after postponing their previously planned strike.

Resident physicians and fellows at Philadelphia-based Temple University Hospital have voted to join the Committee of Interns and Residents, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union, the committee said in a Jan. 10 Facebook post, becoming the second group of Philadelphia-area physicians to unionize.

Nearly 5,000 employees, including nurses, physicians, nurse practitioners, physician associates and nurse midwives, began an open-ended strike Jan. 10 at Providence hospitals and clinics across Oregon.

Resident physicians and fellows at Einstein Healthcare Network, part of Philadelphia-based Jefferson Health, voted 356-35 to join the Committee of Interns and Residents, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union, the union said in a Jan. 8 Facebook post.

Resident physicians in Northern California have reached a tentative labor contract with Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente, according to statements shared with Becker's.

Nurses at Mayo Clinic Health System in Fairmont, Minn., have voted to remove the Minnesota Nurses Association as their bargaining representative.

Members of the Michigan Nurses Association are set to begin a five-day strike Jan. 20 at Lansing-based University of Michigan Health-Sparrow.

Resident physicians and fellows at Providence-based Rhode Island Hospital, part of Brown University Health, formerly Lifespan, have voted to unionize.

Members of the United Nurses and Health Care Employees of Hawaii, a local chapter of the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals, have approved a new labor contract with Maui Health in Hawaii.

Nearly 1,000 physicians at four NYC Health + Hospitals facilities in New York City have postponed their planned strike by one week.

Resident physicians and fellows at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia have voted against joining the Committee of Interns and Residents, which is affiliated with the Service Employees International Union.