A group of doctors who work for both RWJBarnabas Health and Rutgers University voted to unionize earlier this week, union officials said.
The physicians — who work for Rutgers 10% of the time and RWJBarnabas 90% of the time — were hired as “clinically focused university practitioners,” or CFUP. They are both physicians and faculty members at the state university.
About 75% of the doctors who participated in the vote elected to join the American Association of University Professors-Biological and Health Sciences New Jersey, known as the AAUP-BHSNJ, union officials said.
The AAUP-BHSNJ represents Rutgers University doctors and other medical professionals.
There are 157 clinically focused university practitioner doctors in the group and 55% took part in the union vote. The official vote was 66 to 21, according to the final tally.
All 157 doctors will be part of the new union, union officials said. However, the vote does not affect other doctors in the RWJBarnabas system.
RWJBarnabas Health officials said their organization has always been union-friendly.
“We recognize our employees’ right to organize and did in fact consent to an election conducted by the National Labors Relations Board,” the company said in a statement.
RWJBarnabas Health hosted information sessions to help answer employee questions, the company said.
“It is essential that employees hear from both the employer and the Union prior to a vote. We look forward to working with AAUP towards a fair contract,” the statement said. “As always, our goal is to reach a positive resolution that supports both our employees and the delivery of high-quality care for our patients.”
Rutgers officials did not immediately respond to a request to comment.
Though it is common for nurses and other hospital workers to be represented by unions, it is relatively rare for medical doctors to be unionized in large healthcare systems.
Dr. Chris Simotas, a pediatrician whose focus is rare genetic disorders, is one of the doctors who voted to join the union. He said one of his biggest concerns is starting salaries for clinically focused university practitioners.
Based on salary data in national surveys, Simotas said he learned he was “way, way below what would be the floor if I was a Rutgers hire.”
The vote impacts clinically focused university practitioner doctors who work all over the state in RWJBarnabas facilities, which include more than 10 hospitals.
The doctors work alongside Rutgers-hired physicians who have more job security and perks unavailable to them, including free Rutgers tuition for dependents, union officials said. Unionizing means the doctors can collectively bargain with RWJBarnabas for their next contract.
“These academic doctors are sick of settling for less and are not going to do it any longer,” said Trent McDonald, an organizer with the Rutgers chapter of the American Association of University Professors, known as the AAUP-AFT. The union represents 10,000 academic workers.
McDonald says doctors are hoping to win “minimum parity” with their Rutgers-hired peers.
“When they’ve been promoted, they’ve received nothing other than a title change,” said McDonald, referring to some doctors working for RWJBarnabas who did not receive a raise with a promotion.
Rutgers University and the RWJBarnabas Health hospital chain formed a long-term partnership in 2018 to increase federal funding, attract top doctors and help raise New Jersey’s profile for medical research.
RWJBarnabas urged the doctors to vote “no” on joining the union and held town hall meetings to discuss the unionization efforts, the union said. The health care giant also hired a consultant who previously worked against efforts to unionize at Amazon, Simotas and union officials said.
At least 30% of the eligible doctors in the group previously signed union cards affirming their interest in forming a union, which led to an election process via the National Labor Relations Board that lasted a little more than two weeks. It ended when the votes were counted Tuesday.
The National Labor Relations Board has lost some staff, like many other federal government agencies, after President Donald Trump took office. But, union officials said the voting process went relatively smoothly.
“They all worked very, very hard,” McDonald said of the National Labor Relations Board staff that oversaw the process.
Todd Wolfson, associate professor of journalism and media studies at Rutgers and the national AAUP president, is hopeful the victory could lead to more unionized doctors.
The corporatization of academic medicine ”has worsened physician working conditions, patient care, and the training of medical students and residents,” Wolfson said. “We are already hearing from other RWJBH physicians about wanting to join our union, and we welcome them with open arms.”
Stories by Liz Rosenberg
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Liz Rosenberg may be reached at lrosenberg@njadvancemedia.com.