Doctors are the front line of healthcare, and have long sought to form an organization that would ensure that their patients are receiving the best care possible. In the past, this meant forming professional medical societies that advocate for their members’ interests within their respective communities. Today, it means forming national and international associations that are concerned with the issues facing the profession as a whole.
In an era when our healthcare system struggles to balance quality against cost and technology against humanity, doctors must be prepared to lead. But they cannot do this effectively alone. And if current trends continue, they will only be further pushed out of the decision-making process.
As a result, they have little choice but to organize with their fellow physicians. Whether they are faced with crushing burnout from administrative overload, frustration over financial barriers that prevent patients’ ability to pay or simply being disrespected by corporate owners who put profits above patient care, doctors understand that their only true power is their collective voice.
The most well-known national union for physicians in the United States is the American Medical Association, which represents about 75% of all practicing physicians. But even that organization has not been able to speak up loudly enough for patients. It has been stifled by antitrust laws that prevent organized groups from advocating for their members’ economic interests.
It is time to change that. That is why today, AFT President Randi Weingarten launched a new doctors’ organizing initiative and division: the Union Physicians of AFT. The new division is part of AFT Healthcare, which already represents 1.8 million pre-K-12 educators; paraprofessionals and other school-related workers; higher education faculty and staff; federal, state and local government employees; nurses; and healthcare professionals.
Physicians have been hesitant to join unions, but they have a unique set of skills that make them uniquely capable of organizing a movement for better healthcare. They are resourceful, energized, and impassioned. We have seen this in the students who survived the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, or when pediatrician Mona Hanna-Attisha exposed the fact that Flint’s water was saturated with toxic levels of lead.
We can also see it in the hundreds of doctors who have voted to join a union at Allina Hospital, a health system in Minnesota. These doctors have expressed their concerns about everything from excessive documentation to the length of hospital stays for patients with complex needs. They have decided that enough is enough.
In the past, many doctors have been afraid to speak out against their employer’s policies because they feared being fired or forced out of the field altogether. But the tide may be turning. Just last month, a group of physicians at an Allina facility voted to unionize. It is likely only a matter of time before this trend continues nationwide. In the meantime, AFT is proud to stand with doctors as they organize and work together to shape a healthcare system that works for everyone.