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At least 4 urgent care centers in Colorado were closed on the same day last week because of a walkout among employees—who were not represented by a union—disrupting business operations and unexpectedly leaving patients in the community with fewer choices for accessing care. Local news outlets reported employee complaints about wages. There’s no doubt labor activity in general has accelerated across the country, and urgent care leaders should be paying attention, according to Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc, President of Urgent Care Consultants and Senior Editor of JUCM. The activity is further evidence of the workforce realities that urgent care centers face today as they strategically manage operational growth and compete to fill open positions.
Labor and the law: “Because so many nurse practitioners transition out of large hospital systems, they are bringing into the outpatient urgent care space an ingrained familiarity with nursing unions and collective bargaining,” Ayers says. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 13.5% of “healthcare practitioners” were represented by unions in 2025. It’s critical for operators of urgent care centers to understand what actions and behaviors are prohibited by law among employers with regard to employees exercising their rights in organizing, forming, joining, or assisting a labor organization for collective bargaining purposes. Read more from the JUCM archive: Can PAs and NPs Unionize in Urgent Care Settings?