After a year of negotiations for better working conditions, Unity Health Care employees held a rally on March 15 in support of their staff amid ongoing turmoil.
The rally comes after more resignations from doctors at the organization’s clinics and slow progress with union negotiations. With clinics unable to efficiently replace the physicians lost, the workload for remaining staff has only gone up, physicians say.
Unity is the largest health care provider for underserved people in D.C. Medical providers originally unionized in late 2023, beginning negotiations in April 2024. The nursing and support staff followed suit, moving to unionize at the end of 2024.
The main objective of the rally was to increase the awareness of union contract negotiations for better working conditions for staff, especially after the announcement the CEO and President of Unity, Dr. Jessica Henderson Boyd, will be stepping down in May.
Although Unity workers have near wall-to-wall union coverage, Jimmy Tracy, family nurse practitioner and Unity Health Care peer representative, said the rally was necessary to push for faster contract results.
“You get Unity to agree to our demands so that we can get this contract done, and we can get back to taking care of patients,” Tracy said.
Since the beginning of bargaining sessions more than a year ago, providers wanted to portray strength and allyship for the staff and the patients.
“We’re not only advocating for ourselves, but advocating for the patients and that we are eager to be a part of the broader movement for health care justice in the city,” Tracy said. “We’re very happy to engage our community allies because we’re in for the long haul.”
It’s not clear how Boyd’s resignation could impact contract negotiations. Boyd has not been an active participant in the bargaining session negotiations since the beginning of the process, said Tracy. Her team did not respond to Street Sense’s request for comment.
Tracy also worries about the recent federal changes under the Trump administration in the Medicaid and Medicare programs. Programs such as Medicaid are monumental in Unity’s patients’ ability to see specialists, and the organization’s primary income comes from Medicaid reimbursements, according to Tracy.
The Trump administration has overseen the firing of thousands of probationary employees in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which oversees Medicare and Medicaid government programs, according to the Center for Medicare Advocacy. The group expressed worries about how these firings will affect operations and health care fraud prosecutions. The administration has argued that the cuts are intended to cut costs and boost efficiency.
So far, Unity Health Care has not seen any major changes in Medicaid or other community health care service funding. According to Tracy, Medicaid makes a great difference in access to care because recipients do not have to use the emergency room to see a doctor and can routinely get their medications.
“We definitely feel like it’s the right time to not only be active for our own interests, but add to the ranks of organizations in the city that are doing important work to [promote] good policies and to protest bad policies,” Tracy said.
