Here are eight updates on healthcare labor movements in 2025 that included physicians, residents and fellows, as reported by Becker’s:
1. University of Massachusetts resident physicians, interns and fellows employed by Worcester-based UMass Chan Medical School ratified a new union contract in early November. The deal covered about 700 unionized physicians represented by Service Employees International Union’s Committee of Interns and Residents.
2. Doctors Council-represented primary care and urgent care providers at clinics operated by Minneapolis-based Allina Health planned to strike Nov. 5. The 600-member union includes physicians, physician assistants and nurse practitioners. Allina has 12 hospital campuses, more than 60 primary care clinics, 20 same-day and urgent care centers, and 27,865 care team members total.
3. Residents and fellow physicians at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore voted to ratify their first labor contract with the hospital.
4. Resident physicians and fellows at one Chicago-based organization ratified their first labor contract as members of the same union at another continue to negotiate with their health system. Physicians at McGaw Medical Center of Northwestern University — the nonprofit that sponsors Northwestern’s residency and fellowship programs — ratified the deal Sept. 15-19, more than a year after physicians unionized in January 2024. They reached a tentative agreement with hospital administrators Sept. 5 after they held a unity break action outside Northwestern Memorial Hospital in August.
5. Primary care physicians at Boston-based Mass General Brigham’s Massachusetts General and Brigham and Women’s hospitals voted to unionize June 2.
6. Providence saw several weeks of strikes at facilities in Oregon:
- The 11 bargaining units represent 5,000 employees, including nurses at eight Providence hospitals and some physicians at Providence-based St. Vincent Medical Center and the Providence Women’s clinic. The strike began Jan. 10 and was estimated to be the largest healthcare strike in the state’s history.
- Hospitalists and palliative care physicians at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland, represented by the Pacific Northwest Hospital Medicine Association, reached a tentative agreement with Providence Oregon on Feb. 5.
- Nurses, physicians and providers in two bargaining units at Providence Women’s Clinic in the Portland area voted to ratify their agreements. These staff returned to work Feb. 6 after accepting Providence’s offer, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting.
7. Resident physicians, interns and fellows employed by Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston voted 407-85 to join the Committee of Interns and Residents, which is affiliated with the Service Employees International Union.
8. Almost 1,000 physicians of New York City-based NYC Health + Hospitals announced plans to strike on Jan. 13. Doctors Council—Service Employees International Union, which represents almost 1,000 NYC Health physicians, issued a 10-day strike notice to the health system and its affiliates, Physicians Affiliate Group of New York and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
