AFT Launches New Union Physicians’ Organizing Effort

WASHINGTON—Today, AFT President Randi Weingarten announced the launch of a brand-new doctors’ organizing initiative and division: Union Physicians of AFT. Doctors across the country are faced with crippling burnout from administrative overload, frustration over financial barriers affecting their patients’ capacity to pay, and lack of respect from corporate owners who put profits over patients—and now they’re organizing with the AFT to fight back.

This new division, part of AFT Healthcare, will focus its efforts on organizing doctors nationwide. These challenges are apparent across the healthcare sector, but less than 10 percent of all U.S. doctors have formed unions. The tide is rapidly turning.

“Doctors are demanding a voice in the decisions that impact their patients and their professions to address systemic issues—like inadequate resources, understaffing and stifling bureaucratic structures that detract from their primary focus—patient care,” said AFT President Randi Weingarten.

“From emergency room doctors to hospitalists and palliative care physicians, from women's health doctors to urgent care doctors and primary care doctors, these guardians make lifesaving healthcare interventions and safeguard public health, but are all too often burdened by a combination of burnout, bureaucracy and corporate greed.

“The present situation is unacceptable, untenable and unsustainable. Instead, doctors are joining together to forge a future where professional integrity is upheld and where healthcare systems can serve the needs of patients and communities.”

The ranks of AFT’s physicians have already grown at an unprecedented rate—with over 3,200 new members, from New York to Oregon, joining the union over the last year. The AFT is the fastest growing healthcare union and the second-largest nurses union in the U.S.

“In over a decade as an emergency physician, I have seen how profits and corporate interests have negatively affected working conditions for physicians and, more importantly, our ability to provide the high-quality care our patients deserve,” said emergency medicine Dr. Bryce Pulliam of Medford, Ore. “I became a union physician with AFT to take back control from profit-driven corporate interests and make sure my colleagues and I can focus our energy on what we went into medicine to do—provide excellent care for our patients, day in and day out.”

Amid a rapidly changing healthcare landscape, the AFT is focused on securing better wages, benefits and work schedules that reflect the demanding nature of the medical profession, improving not only the well-being of doctors but also attracting and retaining talented healthcare professionals—ultimately benefiting patient care.

“I'm a union physician with AFT because I've seen doctors' voices being drowned out by administrators who center profits over patients,” said OB-GYN Dr. Jennifer Lincoln. “We took an oath to provide the best care we can for our patients, and it is increasingly difficult to do this when our voices and expertise are ignored.”

Physicians recognize that to truly shape their future, and the future of our shared health system, working together is necessary. Corporate owners won’t yield to anything less than a solid voice advocating for better patient care. By joining together to shape the future, physicians are placing their bets on a better tomorrow in healthcare—better for themselves, better for their patients and better for their country—and the AFT is proud to stand with them in their fight.