Hennepin County Medical Center in downtown Minneapolis. Courtesy photo.
A majority of the more than 200 resident physicians at Hennepin Healthcare announced their intent to unionize on Wednesday, joining a wave of organizing campaigns by doctors and advanced health care providers across the country.
Hennepin Healthcare resident physicians say they earn low wages while being pushed to the breaking point during long days treating some of the state’s sickest and poorest residents at the major Level I trauma center in downtown Minneapolis.
“It’s really important that residents have good working conditions and feel that they are heard,” said Allyssa Jonsson, a third-year resident in family medicine at Hennepin Healthcare. “I think that will result in better patient care because we’ll have more of ourselves to give to our patients.”
In a statement, the health system said it recognizes residents’ “legal right to consider union representation.”
“Our institution deeply values our residents and their contributions to patient care, medical education, and research. We are committed to providing a supportive learning environment, fair compensation, and the necessary resources to help our trainees thrive in their careers,” the statement said.
Resident physicians work under the supervision of attending physicians for several years after medical school, often putting in grueling 80-hour weeks. With a starting salary of around $67,000, residents complain they earn around the Minneapolis minimum wage of $15.97 an hour.
Jonsson said residents have little power over their pay or working conditions because of the national process through which newly minted doctors match with residency programs.
“Once you match to a program, you do not have the option of negotiating anything after that point,” Jonsson said. “Most people stay at the same program for their entire residency because it’s very challenging if not impossible to change.”
Jonsson said she hopes the union will be able to win higher wages and correct for disparities, like how much parental leave residents are able to take. She said men may only be allowed two weeks of paid leave while women are allowed six, although it depends on which unit they’re working in.
Attending physicians are not unionized at Hennepin Healthcare, and it’s still rare for doctors — traditionally the most privileged and valued of hospital staff — to pursue collective bargaining to improve their wages and conditions.
But the consolidation of health care is making doctors increasingly feel more like workers on assembly lines than masters of their own practices.
In 2023, more than 550 primary and urgent care clinicians — including doctors, physician assistants and nurse practitioners — across dozens of Allina Health facilities voted to form what was then the nation’s largest private-sector union of advanced health care providers. Just a few months later, the union of more than 130 Allina Health doctors at Mercy and Unity hospitals was certified over the health system’s objections.
SEIU’s Committee of Interns and Residents, which represents more than 37,000 doctors nationwide, says it’s one of the fastest growing health care unions in the country, having doubled in size since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The union won six elections with 250 or more workers across the country in January 2025 alone.
If successful at Hennepin Healthcare, the doctors would be the first resident physicians to unionize in Minnesota.
The resident physicians are asking Hennepin Healthcare leaders to begin negotiating right away.