Here are six groups of medical professionals that have announced or finalized plans to unionize, as reported by Becker's since July 15:
1. More than 500 physicians and practitioners at Minneapolis-based Allina Health organization notified the National Labor Relations Board of their intent to unionize. The effort involves 550 physicians, nurse practitioners and other clinicians employed by Allina Health Primary Care and Urgent Care.
2. Physicians who work at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland, Ore., voted to join the Pacific Northwest Hospital Medicine Association, a hospitalists union represented by AFT Healthcare and serviced by the Oregon Nurses Association. Out of more than 70 physicians, 87 percent voted in favor of unionization.
3. Nurses at Ascension Saint Agnes Hospital in Baltimore filed a petition seeking to vote on whether to unionize. The petition was filed by the National Nurses Organizing Committee, an affiliate of National Nurses United. The union seeks to represent 500 full-time, regular part-time and per diem registered nurses who work at the hospital, which is part of St. Louis-based Ascension.
4. More than 70 nurses at Confluence Health Hospital Mares Campus in Wenatchee, Wash., voted to join the Washington State Nurses Association. The vote covers about 100 registered nurses at the facility.
5. About 85 nurse practitioners, midwives and physician assistants at Vancouver, Wash.-based PeaceHealth filed a petition seeking to vote on whether to join the Union of American Physicians and Dentists. The petition was filed on behalf of workers employed by PeaceHealth at the Northwest Network Washington clinics and hospitals in Bellingham, Sedro-Woolley, Burlington and Friday Harbor.
6. A group of emergency physicians at Ascension St. John Hospital in Detroit — along with physician assistants, nurse practitioners and lead advanced practice clinicians — voted to join the Greater Detroit Association of Emergency Physicians.