Here are 14 petitions for unionization, strikes, contract deals and other developments in the healthcare workforce that occurred in March, as reported by Becker’s:
1. The more than 475 registered nurses and healthcare workers at BMC South in Brockton, Mass., who are represented by the Massachusetts Nurses Association rescinded their three-day strike notice to allow negotiations to continue April 27. After progress was made during negotiations, local officials asked the system to return to the table, which it said it would if the union held off the strike, according to the MNA.
“If we are unable to reach an equitable agreement, we have the option of resubmitting a [10-day] notice to strike, but we hope that won’t be necessary,” a union spokesperson told Becker’s.
2. Members of 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East at Dunkirk, N.Y.-based Brooks-TLC Hospital System ratified a one-year contract extension. The contract, which covers more than 160 hospital workers, expires April 30, 2027.
3. Nurses at University Medical Center New Orleans, represented by the National Nurses Organizing Committee, an affiliate of National Nurses United, planned to begin a five-day strike May 1 — the hospital’s sixth since October 2024.
4. Kaiser Permanente employees represented by unions within the Alliance of Health Care Unions ratified 52 collective bargaining agreements across the Oakland, Calif.-based organization’s markets. The agreements cover more than 61,000 employees represented by the Alliance of Health Care Unions, a federation of about two dozen local unions.
5. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the union representing more than 42,000 University of California workers, plans to begin an open-ended strike May 14.
6. Primary care providers at Cleveland-based MetroHealth are taking steps to unionize with AFSCME Ohio Council 8. Organizers said April 14 that the proposed bargaining unit would include MetroHealth physicians, physician assistants and advanced practice registered nurses.
7. A supermajority of nearly 150 resident physicians at Visalia, Calif.-based Kaweah Delta Health Care District filed a petition for union recognition April 9.
8. Nurses have been striking at Henry Ford Genesys Hospital in Grand Blanc, Mich., for more than seven months. The hospital’s negotiating team met with union leaders April 9 for the 87th time since negotiations began in April 2025, a Henry Ford Health spokesperson said in a statement shared with Becker’s.
9. Technical workers at Rochester (N.Y.) General Hospital voted 145-54 to join the Rochester Union of Nurses and Allied Professionals.
10. Nearly 40 Massachusetts lawmakers urged Mass General Brigham, based in Somerville, Mass., to recognize a union of primary care physicians and begin contract negotiations. A letter signed by 38 legislators called on the health system to drop its legal challenge to the bargaining unit and move forward with collective bargaining after physicians voted 183-26 in May to unionize.
11. Registered nurses at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago will vote May 14-16 on unionization after filing a petition April 8 with the National Labor Relations Board for a union election.
12. Employees at Windham Community Memorial Hospital in Willimantic, Conn., voted to remove the American Federation of Teachers as their bargaining representative. The vote was 168-70 in favor of union decertification.
13. The National Labor Relations Board dismissed a petition seeking a vote to decertify the union at UPMC Washington (Pa.), citing an existing labor contract. NLRB Acting Regional Director Tara Yoest ruled April 2 that an existing labor contract ratified in February 2025 bars the petition, which sought to remove SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania as the bargaining representative for about 290 service and maintenance employees.
14. Primary and urgent care providers represented by the Doctors Council Service Employees International Union reached a tentative agreement with Minneapolis-based Allina Health.
The three-year agreement covers more than 600 Allina physicians, physician assistants and nurse practitioners and comes more than two years after negotiations began. It follows a one-day strike in November, according to an April 2 union news release shared with Becker’s.
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