“It’s getting more and more commonplace where people are not being heard in their workplace,” says Stuart Bussey, president of the Union of American Physicians and Dentists (UAPD), which Unity workers are looking to join. “It’s become an industry where the physician is becoming increasingly a pawn in the economic plans where profits are over patients.”
UAPD field organizer Rachel Flores says that the Unity medical professionals she’s talked to haven’t named compensation as a primary motivation for unionizing. Instead, she says what they hope to secure in a bargaining contract is more time for and support of their work with patients. They also believe a union will enable more discussion and transparency around changes to their workplace.