Matt Hoffman, MD, and member of SEIU-Doctors Council speaks at a rally.
On November 5, 650 medical doctors, physicians assistants, and nurse practitioners with the Doctors Council-SEIU may go on a one-day Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) strike. The strike would impact over 60 Allina clinics across Minnesota. The workers are demanding safe staffing levels in order to retain healthcare providers and improve the quality of care for patients. If the workers do strike, the union believes it will mark the largest doctors’ strike in the private healthcare industry in the country.
The workers formed the union in October 2023, making the unit the largest private-sector doctors’ union in the United States, according to a press release from SEIU. After nearly 20 months and over 50 bargaining sessions, the union states that Allina has not met them in good faith at the bargaining table. Over the summer, workers voted with over 90% support to authorize a strike, according to a statement from the union.
According to a union spokesperson, the ULP charges allege that Allina Health made changes to working conditions and bypassed the union channels.
Following the October 29 bargaining session, Katherine Oyster, MD, and member of the bargaining committee, said in a press release, “We were disappointed that Allina did not make meaningful movement today. Despite our efforts, Allina continues to propose pay cuts and worse benefits for our members. They did not address staffing shortages or multiple Unfair Labor lol that we have filed.”
In an interview with Workday Magazine, Matt Hoffman, MD, and member of the bargaining committee, emphasized that the healthcare providers have taken the decision to strike very seriously. “We wouldn’t have done this if we didn’t think that striking for one day would be better for our patients in the long run, because if we take what’s in the contract now, it’s going to be worse for patients,” Hoffman states.
If the healthcare providers do strike, workers will picket outside various clinics across the Twin Cities metro including Allina clinics in Richfield, West St. Paul, and Coon Rapids, Minn.
Hoffman states that “the big underlying issue is that medicine has become much more corporatized.”
“The people that provide the care really are not involved in a lot of the decisions that go into how we care for patients,” he explains. “Those decisions, instead of being made by doctors, physician assistants, and medical practitioners, are being made by healthcare executives that certainly don’t have our best interest in mind, and definitely don’t have patients’ best interest in mind.”
At a Doctors Council-SEIU press conference on October 24, Nick VenOsdel, MD, said that “a lot of us are at our breaking points, collectively. We feel like we’ve done everything we can to avoid getting up to this point.” Many primary care providers feel “demoralized” by burnout, and that impacts the care they are able to provide patients, VenOsdel said, echoing sentiments of “moral injury” expressed by the Minnesota Nurses Association earlier this year.
Cora Walsh, MD and member of the bargaining committee, also spoke at the press conference. She said that low staffing levels lead to long wait times for patients to see their primary care providers or patients being directed to emergency rooms. She explains that the Doctors Council provided Allina Health with safe staffing proposals and that Allina has not meaningfully responded. However, Allina did offer a pay cut and cuts to benefits at the bargaining table, says Walsh.
Workers state that not only is this impacting wait times, but Allina has also closed clinics in recent months. This summer, Allina announced the closure of four clinics across the Twin Cities metro, including clinics in Inver Grove Heights, Maplewood, Nicollet Mall, and Oakdale.
A spokesperson for Allina Health told Workday Magazine, “While we have made substantial progress on a number of issues, the union’s request for significant compensation increases and extreme benefits proposals are simply not realistic or sustainable.”
But workers argue that the current model is unsustainable. “We want to be able to come in and care for our patients and not feel burned out, not feel like we are so overwhelmed with work that we don’t have the time and the energy to give our patients the best care we can,” says Hoffman.
Hoffman stresses the importance of unions, especially for doctors and healthcare providers, saying that “Healthcare executives are going to try to maximize profits for themselves, which means resources taken away from patients. What a union can do is it can advocate for the providers.” He goes on to warn that, “If we don’t advocate for that, nobody else is going to advocate for us. We’re going to be left to the decisions of corporate executives.”
Allina Health said it “is disappointed Doctors Council SEIU-represented Primary Care and Urgent Care providers are deciding to engage in a strike instead of meaningful negotiations at the bargaining table.” The employer added, “Allina Health is prepared to continue providing safe care to meet the needs of our communities during the one-day strike.”
The Doctors Council has another bargaining session on November 3 and the strike is set to take place on November 5.