Allina doctors unionized because the profit-centric, factory style of medicine must end

Allina doctors like me unionized in 2023 to have a voice so we can improve our workplaces and our careers and to ensure primary care is viable for future generations.

We took this step because the autocratic, profit-centric, factory style of practicing medicine is no longer viable. With our successful vote, we became the largest outpatient provider union in the United States.

We took this vote to make change for ourselves and our patients, but progress has been slow. We have been bargaining for about 15 months, starting in February of 2024. We’ve sat across from Allina nearly 40 times, and we’ve made progress in many areas.

Unfortunately, despite all of this work, it feels like we aren’t seeing the progress we need from Allina as we push toward a contract.

We understand contract negotiations can be difficult, but many areas should be simple to navigate and find common ground.

Health care workers, for instance, face workplace violence at higher rates than most other industries in the country. We feel that it would be reasonable to strive for safe and secure work sites.

Our proposals have offered measures to improve the safety of health care workers, but we have not found common ground with our employer yet.

We feel that physicians, physician assistants and nurse practitioners should have benefits like paid time off — a common benefit in many other industries that doctors currently lack. We have been unable to get Allina to move on that issue.

Our proposals have outlined provisions for appropriate staffing. We need nurses, medical assistants and laboratory and other ancillary staff in order to properly serve our patient’s needs. Unfortunately, some of our clinics remain understaffed, rendering it more difficult to perform our daily duties. We have proposed language around this, yet this is another issue that still needs to be resolved.

There is a clear trend in health care of providers reducing work hours. Many feel this is necessary to try to maintain some semblance of work-life balance. Health care worker burnout rates remain high. The antidote for this is not increasing work hours. Our providers trade hours of time away from family, friends and the necessary activities for well-being each week to do volumes of work that are non-compensated and don’t take place in the exam room.

Our proposals have measures to reduce the amount of this work and strategies to promote an actual work-life balance. We worry if we don’t address this, even more providers will leave the industry, which is bad for patients across Minnesota.

Most of us on the bargaining team knew we would reach resistance at some point. I had hoped we would be further along when it happened. I am not willing to abandon important issues, which our members have expressed so much concern over, simply because Allina doesn’t wish to see these common-sense changes happen. These issues are prominent with providers in health care systems across the country, and we can showcase a path forward if we can reach a fair contract.

Primary care has been shown to improve community health. A strong primary care system reduces mortality, improves life expectancy, improves health equity and lowers health care costs. Primary care must be supported and nurtured by our health care systems, communities and state government. As our providers burn out and reduce hours, our patients lose access to care. We will see worse chronic disease control and worse health outcomes.

Our members are engaging in an informational picket Tuesday because we feel this is a necessary step to help Allina administration understand the need for continued negotiations. We feel this is an important step to engage our patients and communities on the plight of primary care providers and the desperate need to maintain a strong primary care network.

Our negotiations need not be contentious. A good contract helps keep Allina’s employees happy. A good contract can attract the best providers across the state to bolster our community health efforts. A good contract ensures those new providers will flock to Allina, ready to provide our communities with decades of excellent care. A good contract helps our providers and administration collaborate to provide better care across the state of Minnesota.

On this day, we’re raising awareness that things are stuck in our negotiations, but remain hopeful that Allina will hear the voices of providers, patients and our community and understand why a fair first contract is the best solution for all involved.