Minnesota hospital doctors stage what union calls first private-sector physician strike in US history

Allina Health, one of Minnesota’s largest nonprofit hospital systems, saw about 150 physicians at two of its Minneapolis-area hospitals begin a four-day strike on September 14, after three years of contract negotiations failed to produce a first union contract, according to CBS News’ Minnesota affiliate.

The striking doctors, hospitalists, OB-GYNs, psychiatrists and critical care physicians, work at Allina’s Mercy Hospital campus in Coon Rapids and its Unity campus in Fridley. They are represented by Doctors Council SEIU, which says the roughly 150 physicians make up about 10% of doctors at the two facilities. The bargaining unit voted with 91% support in June to authorize the strike as an unfair labor practice action, following a ten-day strike notice filed September 4. Beyond wages, benefits and time off, the union is seeking the elimination of noncompete agreements that restrict where physicians can practice after leaving Allina, along with greater input over staffing and workload decisions, according to labor news outlet OnLabor.

Union leaders describe the walkout as the first strike by private-sector hospital physicians in U.S. history. Physician strikes have occurred before at public and government-run facilities, but organizers say this is the first at a private hospital system.

Dr. John Wust, one of the striking physicians, said doctors are seeking paid sick time and a stronger voice in decisions that affect patient care, including the growing use of artificial intelligence in treatment and billing decisions. “We feel like we’re being excluded from decisions that affect the care of our patients,” Wust said, according to CBS News.

Allina Health said in a statement that it remains “committed to reaching agreements that provide competitive compensation,” while noting the negotiations involve broader questions about the cost of care and healthcare availability in the community.

The physician strike ran alongside a separate, seven-day strike by about 60 Allina hospice nurses represented by SEIU Healthcare, which began the preceding Friday and covers home hospice, skilled nursing and assisted living care across the Twin Cities metro area. Allina said in a statement that Mercy and Unity would “continue normal operations, with no disruption to services” during the physician walkout, citing contingency staffing plans, and separately said its hospice program has “expert nurses and plans in place to maintain continuity of care” while nurses are on strike. Allina is also in the process of being acquired by the California-based hospital system Sutter Health, a deal announced earlier this year.

The Doctors Council SEIU bargaining unit includes hospitalists who oversee inpatient care, OB-GYNs who deliver babies and handle high-risk pregnancies, psychiatrists treating inpatient mental health patients, and critical care physicians who staff intensive care units, meaning the walkout touched several of the hospitals’ highest-acuity departments at once.

Doctors Council SEIU represents physicians at hospitals in several states and has organized a growing number of hospital-employed doctors in recent years as consolidation has reshaped the healthcare industry. The union says physicians’ exclusion from decisions on how artificial intelligence tools are deployed in patient care was a central issue at the bargaining table over the three years of talks.

The strike was scheduled to run four days, covering Mercy and Unity’s hospitalist, OB-GYN, psychiatry and critical care staffing from September 14 through September 17, according to CBS News.