
Michelle Berger is a student at Harvard Law School.
In today’s News and Commentary: a trend toward unionization by private-sector doctors gathers steam in Minnesota, the implementation of Florida’s anti-union law draws challenges from the very police and firefighter unions that the law was designed to appease, and a status check on labor negotiations in the transport, auto, and airline industries.
Last Thursday, doctors in Minnesota filed an election petition with the NLRB. If successful, their union (Doctors Council SEIU Local 10MD) will be the largest union of private-sector doctors in the United States. The doctors’ employer is Allina Health, a system of 12 hospitals, over 60 primary care clinics, and additional same-day and urgent care centers across Minnesota and western Wisconsin. Allina Health employs hundreds of doctors. Bloomberg Law reports that the unionization effort at Allina Health reflects a broader trend of doctors organizing in the private sector. This organizing follows a jump in acquisitions of physician-owned practices by private equity firms and insurers. These acquisitions have both seized autonomy from physicians, sowing discontent and the seeds of collective action, while simultaneously shifting these physicians from statutory “employers” to “employees” such that they are eligible to organize under the NLRA. Unionizing doctors hope that a union will help them push their employers to prioritize patient care over productivity and return on investment. Explaining the doctors’ motivation, Bloomberg Law quotes organizer Joe Crane: “This is like their last ditch effort to save health care.”
Legal challenges related to Florida’s recently-enacted anti-union law –– which I began covering here in March –– are mounting, with police officer and firefighter unions in the state joining the fray in recent weeks. SB 256 endangers the future of public sector unions in Florida by both prohibiting automatic deduction of public sector union dues, and requiring a recertification election if less than 60 percent of eligible workers pay dues. SB 256 exempts law enforcement and firefighter unions. As reporters in Florida have noted, such unions have generally been supportive of Florida Governor DeSantis and other Florida republicans, and GOP lawmakers “were widely viewed as exempting public-safety unions” in a nod to this support. But the police officer and firefighter unions of Florida are now unhappy with the regulations that have been promulgated to implement the new law. Under these regulations, police union and firefighter union members who are not themselves law enforcement officers or firefighters (such as dispatchers and EMTs), will be subject to the law’s anti-union provisions. This latest legal challenge by the police officer and firefighter unions joins at least three additional lawsuits filed by teachers’ unions and other public-employee unions in federal and state court to challenge parts of the law.
Elsewhere in the country, significant labor negotiations continue to progress: UPS workers are voting to decide whether to ratify the contract their union, the Teamsters, negotiated. UAW workers, as Jacqueline reported yesterday, will vote next week to decide whether to authorize a strike should negotiations with the Big 3 automakers break down. And in the airline industry, the union representing over 17,000 transport workers at Southwest has reached a tentative agreement with the airline about a new contract. Southwest previously reached a tentative agreement with its mechanics’ union in June but is still negotiating a new contract with its pilots. Pilots’ unions at Delta and American Airlines, meanwhile, have recently negotiated new contracts with those airlines.
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June 26
A district judge issues a preliminary injunction blocking agencies from implementing Trump’s executive order eliminating collective bargaining for federal workers; workers organize for the reinstatement of two doctors who were put on administrative leave after union activity; and Lamont vetoes unemployment benefits for striking workers.
June 25
Some circuits show less deference to NLRB; 3d Cir. affirms return to broader concerted activity definition; changes to federal workforce excluded from One Big Beautiful Bill.
June 24
In today’s news and commentary, the DOL proposes new wage and hour rules, Ford warns of EV battery manufacturing trouble, and California reaches an agreement to delay an in-person work mandate for state employees. The Trump Administration’s Department of Labor has advanced a series of proposals to update federal wage and hour rules. First, the […]
June 23
Supreme Court interprets ADA; Department of Labor effectively kills Biden-era regulation; NYC announces new wages for rideshare drivers.
June 22
California lawmakers challenge Garmon preemption in the absence of an NLRB quorum and Utah organizers successfully secure a ballot referendum to overturn HB 267.
June 20
Three state bills challenge Garmon preemption; Wisconsin passes a bill establishing portable benefits for gig workers; and a sharp increase in workplace ICE raids contribute to a nationwide labor shortage.