Northwestern Medicine resident physicians and fellows announced their intention to unionize in a Friday morning news release shared with The Daily.
Nearly 1,300 physicians at the hospital system who filed with the National Labor Relations Board are now asking Northwestern Medicine to voluntarily recognize the union, according to the release. The group intends to unionize with the Committee of Interns and Residents, a local of Service Employees International Union which represents more than 30,000 interns, residents and fellows in eleven states.
“Due to inadequate staffing and support systems, we have to sacrifice our well-being to provide the high-quality care our patients receive,” Joseph deBettencourt, a pediatric resident at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, said in the release. “By forming a union we can gain the power and support to address these issues and actively improve our work place and the care we provide for our patients.”
Northwestern Medicine is one of the largest hospital systems in Illinois. Its flagship hospital, Northwestern Memorial Hospital, has the highest net patient revenue in the state, according to Definitive Healthcare.
The effort follows unionization efforts nationwide by medical residents, who often work over 80 hours each week. Residents at Penn Medicine hospitals in Pennsylvania, George Washington University in Washington, DC, and Mass General Brigham in Boston have all formed unions this year.
In the Chicago area, resident physicians and fellows at the University of Illinois unionized with CIR in 2021 and reached a tentative agreement with hospital administrators in February.
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