Aug. 10, 2023
(PORTLAND, Ore.) – On Tuesday, August 1, ballots were counted in a union election for more than 70 physicians at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland, Oregon. Eighty-seven percent of doctors voted in favor of unionization, despite vocal opposition from Providence executives in the lead up to the vote. Hospitalists at St. Vincent will now gain collective bargaining rights—meaning the hospital administration will be obligated to meet and negotiate in good faith with doctors over their wages, benefits, and working conditions.
The doctors join the Pacific Northwest Hospital Medicine Association (PNWHMA), an existing hospitalists union represented by AFT Healthcare and serviced by the Oregon Nurses Association (ONA). Hospitalists are doctors who treats hospitalized patients. AFT Healthcare represents more than 70,000 members in 100 locals in 18 states and territories.
“We are embracing this opportunity to form our union. We want to redefine our relationship with the hospital system which has increasingly put our concerns aside as it aims to meet corporate priorities. We wish to come face-to-face as respected health professionals to address important issues in the safe delivery of patient care, and to address the sustainability of our current working conditions," said Shirley Fox, an OB hospitalist at Providence St. Vincent.
Since the worst of the COVID-19 epidemic, Oregon healthcare workers’ unions have been leading a nationwide effort to improve pay and working conditions in hospitals. Earlier this year Oregon’s legislature passed landmark legislation, House Bill 2697, establishing the best hospital staffing standards in the country.
“Our hospitalist physicians were at the forefront of the COVID-19 pandemic, and though it is by and large over, the pandemic has uncovered many different issues in our healthcare system. More people have delayed or lost access to care and as a result we are seeing more patients with more complex issues than we ever have before. A physician union will help us advocate for what matters to us most: quality, appropriate care for our patients," said Ben Babb, a night shift hospitalist at Providence St. Vincent.
Although unionized nurses have been advocating for better pay, benefits, and patient care for more than 100 years, new groups of healthcare workers are now joining or forming their own unions in large numbers. Twenty years ago, few attending physicians in the US were part of a union, but as healthcare systems have become larger and more corporate, doctors see collective bargaining as the best way to ensure that their voices are heard in decisions that affect their profession and their patients.