“It’s a fast-growing trend, and it’s a trend that nobody quite knows where it’s going to go and what it’s going to mean,” said Dr. Glen Solomon, professor and chair of internal medicine and geriatrics at the Wright State Boonshoft School of Medicine.
Nearly 30% of medical residents across the country have now unionized, Solomon said. Even going back just two years that number was around 17%.
“It’s almost doubled in the past two or three years with the percentage of medical residents who have unionized,” Solomon said.
CareFlight accident sparked union request
Locally, CareFlight personnel unionzed under the UAW and they are now preparing for contract negotiations with Premier Health later this month.
“Originally, we started talking about it after we had the helicopter crash,” said Niki Coleman, a flight nurse and chairperson of CareFlight’s union.
The crash occurred shortly before 5 a.m. on July 26, 2022 at U.S. 127 and Hamilton Eaton Road in Milford Twp. in Butler County while CareFlight had been responding to a crash site. The National Transportation Safety Board investigated the accident, releasing its report earlier this year.
The pilot was attempting to locate power lines in the area, but he could not see them, including with night vision goggles, according to the National Transportation Safety Board’s report. The pilot believed the power lines were farther out from the landing zone and not below the helicopter, but as the helicopter descended for landing, the main rotor blades collided with the wires, the report says.
After the collision with power lines, the helicopter fell about 30 to 50 feet. All three crew members exited the aircraft after the pilot shut down the engines and were later treated at local hospitals.
The helicopter sustained “substantial damage” to certain parts of the aircraft, according to the report, including to the main rotor blades, main rotor gearbox and motor mounts. Additionally, the left engine was hanging off the side of the helicopter.
“Before the crash, we all had complete faith that if something were to happen to us, we would be taken care of, that our families became care of, and after the crash, it just really became evident that wasn’t the case,” Coleman said.
This incident led the personnel involved in the union to look more closely at their benefits, as well as prompted them to want to have more of a voice in CareFlight’s operations, she said.
“We specifically were taking a much closer look at our benefits, and our accidental death and dismemberment doesn’t cover us in the air, which was something that we had a problem with for obvious reasons,” Coleman said. “But it’s a lot more than that. The unionization―it started there.”
Union petitions jumped 226% in Ohio
Throughout all job sectors, workers seeking to unionize has risen significantly, according to the National Labor Relations Board, which saw a doubling of union petitions from fiscal year 2021 to fiscal year 2024.
The Midwest and Ohio have seen even larger increases in union petitions.
Midwestern states saw a 138% increase in union petitions filed with regional offices of the National Labor Relations Board during this time, the highest percent increase of any region in the country.
Ohio’s increase was even larger, increasing by 226%, the board said. Only three states were higher than Ohio’s increases, including Iowa at 300% and both North Dakota and Nebraska at 500%.
“We started looking into what unions can help us with, looking at other people that had unions, and the real push for us was that we wanted to have a voice. We’ve been sitting here and telling our company what we need on our own to take care of our patients, to do a good job,” Coleman said.
They did not feel like they were being heard, she said.
“Now that we have the union, even without the contract in place yet, we have a voice, and we have somebody that’s strong and is a good ally and is standing there beside us and helping make sure that our needs are being addressed,” Coleman said.
Other unions could follow
CareFlight had originally been working with the Ohio Nurses Association on their unionization efforts before pivoting to the UAW. Now, they are the first group of health care workers under Premier Health to unionize, but there may be more to come.
“We’re the first union through Premier,” Coleman said. “The other hospitals are working on it.”
CareFlight’s union, which has about 70 members, had a smaller group of people who were able to come together because, as flight nurses, they are their own category, Coleman said.
“The hospitals, they have to get all of the nurses, and there’s more people, bigger challenges, but there’s there’s a very strong dedicated group that is working on that,” Coleman said. “There’s more coming.”
Premier Health has “worked in good faith” with the UAW to follow the National Labor Relation Board’s post-election process, and support its employees’ federally protected right to choose whether or not they wish to have union representation, a Premier Health spokesperson said.
“To clarify, our CareFlight flight crews – including nurses and paramedics – have insurance coverage while on duty in the air. We have no comment on current negotiations,” the Premier Health spokesperson said.
They did not provide further details on the coverage, and Coleman similarly said those details will be part of negotiations with Premier Health.
Premier Health remains committed to continuing work in employee engagement and the employee experience on behalf of all employees, the Premier Health spokesperson said.
“We are optimistic about the positive momentum we have gained in these areas and look forward to the future,” the Premier Health spokesperson said.
CareFlight personnel are excited to be working with the UAW, Coleman said, adding how they felt good about the protections a union can offer.
“They give me and my family the reassurance that we need so that we can go out there and we can take care of the patients and the community,” Coleman said.
A generational shift in expectations
Even with the growing trend of labor unions in health care, there is still relatively low representation.
“The percentage of the health care workforce today that’s organized is around 20%, so that’s pretty low,” said Scott Nelson, managing principal of SpringParker, a consulting firm based out of Springfield focused on health care needs.
With the changes that are happening, it’s geographical and generational, he said.
“What I’m seeing is that there’s a change in the demographics of organized labor and unionization efforts,” Nelson said.
While previous generations of the health care workforce have not traditionally worked with union representation, those generations are nearing retirement and leaving the workforce, he said. New workers entering the market may have different expectations for their employers.
“I think that has been a shift that I’m seeing...a generational shift in different expectations,” Nelson said.
Communication between workers and their employers doesn’t have to happen through a union, he said. Hospitals and health care organizations can take it upon themselves to seek out employee input.
“Hospitals have tools and resources available to them that they can talk directly to their own staff in their own environment without a union environment being part of that group,” Nelson said.
Others agree that working on that relationship between workers and employers is key.
“The way that you prevent unions from forming is that the health care organizations need to be open and transparent and listen to the needs of their employees and to be willing to act to support their employees,” Solomon said. “Then people don’t need unions.”
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