A new era of physician unionization has emerged recently, marked by union elections among both staff-employed physicians and physicians in training, such as residents and fellows.
Here are 10 things to know about physician unionization efforts:
Union membership trends
1. In June 2024, the American Medical Association’s House of Delegates adopted a resolution on unionization, affirming physicians’ right of collective bargaining with certain caveats “in recognition of physicians’ unique skills and ethical and professional obligations.” The resolution further states that physicians’ growing interest in collective bargaining is “likely driven by dynamics seen in the profession’s shift to ’employed status’ for the majority of physicians.”
2. In 2025, resident and attending physician organizing continues within both the public and private sectors, as evidenced by the following notable developments:
- In March 2025, the SEIU-CIR organized 200 resident physicians employed in the public sector at Hennepin Healthcare at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis.
- In May 2025 the SEIU-CIR organized a unit of 1,000 resident physicians employed at the University of Minnesota. The unit was organized under the state’s card-check procedure.
- Also in May 2025, the AFT Nurses and Health Professionals organized 100 pediatric physicians employed at MultiCare Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital in Tacoma, Wash.
These efforts do not include organizing initiatives that are currently ongoing. For example, the Service Employees International Union in Wisconsin is attempting to organize a group of over 200 employed physicians at the Group Health Cooperative of Southern Wisconsin. However, the union has reportedly filed charges to block a vote, according to American Society for Healthcare Human Resources Administration partners at Chessboard Consulting.
3. Available data from Chessboard also shows seven physician petitions and 17 house staff petitions filed with the National Labor Relations Board in 2024 with 13 out of 17 house staff petitions filed in November of that year alone.
4. Since September 2024, the Committee of Interns and Residents/SEIU has organized more than 5,600 resident physicians nationwide, according to union data shared with Becker’s. More than 4,000 of those house staff joined CIR in January 2025.
5. CIR has recently organized the following hospitals and healthcare facilities:
- Bayonne (N.J.) Medical Center – October 2024
- Rhode Island Hospital (Providence) – December 2024
- Butler Hospital (Providence, R.I.) – December 2024
- Women and Infants of Rhode Island (Providence) – December 2024
- Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (Boston) – December 2024
- Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia – December 2024
- Albert Einstein Medical Center (Philadelphia) – January 2025
- Temple Health Hospitals (Main Campus, Fox Chase, Chestnut Hill) (Philadelphia) – January 2025
- ChristianaCare (Newark, Del.) – January 2025
- Kent Hospital (Warwick, R.I.) – January 2025
- Thomas Jefferson University Hospital (Philadelphia) – January 2025
- Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (Boston) – January 2025
- Brown University (Providence, R.I.) – affiliated facilities (Lifespan Health System and Care New England Health System) – January 2025
6. Doctors Council SEIU has expanded its membership recently as well. For example, physicians at Allina Health Mercy Hospital’s Unity and Mercy campuses in Fridley, Minn., and Coon Rapids, Minn., voted to join Doctors Council SEIU in early 2023. Additionally, primary care physicians at Mass General Brigham’s Massachusetts General and Brigham and Women’s hospitals voted to unionize in May 2025, although Boston-based Mass General Brigham filed objections to the election, arguing that some of the physicians worked at acute care hospitals and were ineligible from joining the bargaining unit.
7. A study published by JAMA in December 2024 found 77 petitions filed with the NLRB to form a union that included physicians, as well as 44 filed over 2000 to 2022 and 33 over 2023 to 2024.
Strike activity
8. Strike activity involving physicians is relatively rare compared to nurses and other professionals. However, a 46-day strike earlier this year in Oregon involved Providence physicians, nurse practitioners and registered nurses. Members of the CIR also held a strike in May 2023 at Elmhurst Hospital Center in New York City.
Other trends and notes
9. Primary care physicians appear to be more interested and involved in union organizing than other specialties (e.g., surgical residents), Chris Cimino, CEO of Chessboard Consulting, told Becker’s.
Mr. Cimino also observed that some union representation petitions for ambulatory MDs attempt to combine MDs working in acute and non-acute (ambulatory) settings, with elections successfully scheduled for these combined units (combining acute and non-acute units has historically been prohibited by the NLRB rules). “In some cases, employers are filing objections based on the healthcare bargaining unit rule, but the [NLRB’s] lack of quorum places these cases on hold at present,” he said.
10. Rebecca Givan, PhD, associate professor of labor studies and employment relations at Rutgers in New Brunswick, N.J., toldBecker’s in January 2025 that she expects unionization to continue among physicians. Furthermore, as housestaff (residents and fellows) finish their training and move into other jobs, the unionization trend may spread into those roles as well.
