Unionized doctors picket outside Allina clinics in first for Minnesota

Yahoo

03-06-2025

Unionized physicians, physician assistants and nurse practitioners picketed in rain and smokey air outside Allina's Coon Rapids clinic on June 3, 2025 in a first for Minnesota. (Photo by Max Nesterak/Minnesota Reformer)
Newly unionized doctors, nurse practitioners and physician assistants walked picket lines for the first time in Minnesota outside four Allina clinics on Tuesday, voicing frustration with what they called the 'factory style' of modern medicine.
The clinicians voted by a wide margin to unionize with Doctors Council SEIU in October 2023, forming the nation's largest private-sector doctors union with more than 600 members across 60 Allina clinics in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
But since then, union leaders say they've made little progress toward finalizing a first labor contract covering wages, benefits and working conditions despite meeting with hospital leaders nearly 40 times.
'We're not seeing Allina come to the table with meaningful proposals,' said Dr. Chris Antolak, a family physician, outside Allina's clinic in Coon Rapids. 'We're here today to picket because we need to prove to Allina that we're standing in strength and solidarity.'
The union also organized picket lines, which are not strikes, outside Allina clinics in Maplewood, West St. Paul and Bloomington.
The striking image of physicians picketing underscores the turbulent state of American health care, which leaves many patients and now even doctors demanding change.
Physicians, as the white collars on their lab coats convey, have not historically seen themselves as workers in need of a union. The consolidation of health care and productivity demands set by faraway bosses, however, has made many feel more like workers pushed to churn through patients on an assembly line rather than masters of their own practices.
'I'm a union kid. My parents were teachers … I never thought I would be union until I realized the power that we have as a single voice,' said Dr. Kara Larson, who's worked as a pediatrician at the Coon Rapids clinic since 1999. 'The union brought us together to advocate for change for our patients.'
The clinicians say Allina has proposed cutting compensation by reducing their base salary from the median wage for health care providers nationally to the 25th percentile.
They also say the health system, one of the largest in the Upper Midwest with $5.8 billion in revenue in 2024, refused to budge in negotiations over reducing work loads and increasing support staff and sick leave. Addressing safety concerns also remains a sticking point — health care workers are among the most likely to be physically assaulted on the job, which is also animating separate union nurses' negotiations with more than a dozen hospitals including Allina.
In a statement, Allina Health said it is negotiating in good faith with the union to seek 'responsible agreements.'
'Allina Health and the union were fully aware they would be charting new territory in creating these first contracts, and it is important to get it right,' the statement said.
The two sides have come to tentative agreements over the control of their schedules, creation of a mentorship program and labor management committee, and protections against unfair discipline.
Braving rain and willdfire-induced bad air, the physicians at times seemed unfamiliar with picket line practices: A SEIU staff member shouted out instructions on picketing — where to start walking and where to pivot back — before they started. More than once the group seemed to forget to keep moving and came to a standstill, while two people led competing chants at different paces, muddying what's typically a clear call-and-response. But nevertheless, they got their point across.
Physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants are sure to become more practiced in blue collar labor demonstrations in the years to come as unionization increases.
Just this year, resident physicians at Hennepin Healthcare and the University of Minnesota unionized with SEIU's Committee of Interns and Residents, one of the fastest growing health care unions in the country.
More than 130 Allina doctors at Mercy and Unity hospitals voted to unionize in 2023, and last year, more than 400 nurse practitioners, physician assistants and other advanced nursing staff voted to unionize across nine Essentia hospitals and 60 clinics spanning northern Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Chris Rubesch, president of the Minnesota Nurses Association, joined the picket line in support of the doctors on Tuesday, signaling a growing alliance between two classes of health care workers not infrequently at odds with each other.
'We have a broken health care system that prioritizes profits … and we need to refocus on our patients,' Rubesch said. 'We are standing with you shoulder to shoulder.'