The first private-sector union contract in veterinary medicine, as the ILWU tells it, is recent history: workers at a Vancouver, Washington specialty hospital voted to join ILWU Local 5 in February 2019 and ratified their first contract 53-1 in August 2020.
This guide covers which unions have organized vet hospitals, what that first contract won — shift differentials, cost-of-living raises, just-cause discipline — how an NLRB election works, and the tradeoffs from the worker side.
Which vet workers are unionized?
The only private-practice veterinary union contract this guide could verify covers hospital staff — the workers of one specialty hospital.
In a private hospital, union coverage runs through the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), and its definition of “employee” draws two lines this profession feels immediately: independent contractors and supervisors are both excluded.
A relief veterinarian or relief technician working on 1099 terms sits outside the NLRA’s organizing protections, and so does a true supervisor — a label that turns on the authority someone actually exercises, not the words on their badge.
Who is actually unionized is harder to answer than who can be, because no verified public list of unionized U.S. veterinary hospitals could be found.
The best-documented case is the first one: workers at Columbia River Veterinary Specialists (CRVS) in Vancouver, Washington voted to join ILWU Local 5 in February 2019 and ratified their first contract 53-1 in August 2020 — which the ILWU called the first private-sector union contract in the veterinary industry.
Looking for a clinic with “Union” in the name?
Which unions organize veterinary hospitals?
Only one union’s veterinary organizing could be verified from primary sources for this guide.
It is ILWU Local 5 of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, which organized the workers at CRVS in Vancouver, Washington; the contract they negotiated is the one the ILWU calls the industry’s first private-sector union contract.
The second name is the National Veterinary Professionals Union (NVPU), a union for veterinary staff.
Its current status could not be verified from primary sources, and neither could the first contract attributed to it — a reported agreement at All Creatures Animal Hospital in Bremerton, Washington, with ILWU co-representation.
Treat that as unconfirmed: the National Labor Relations Board’s public case records are where an election or a first contract would be verifiable.
Beyond those two, nothing else could be verified.
No other union organizing veterinary hospitals could be confirmed from primary sources, and no full, sourced list of unionized U.S. veterinary hospitals could be verified either.
If a hospital near you is said to be unionized, that claim is checkable — NLRB election and case records are public.
What has a veterinary union contract actually won?
The CRVS agreement is the only veterinary union contract whose terms this research could verify, and what follows is what the ILWU — the union that negotiated it — says it contained.
On discipline and job security: a just-cause standard for discipline and termination, plus seniority-based layoffs and recalls.
On pay structure: differentials for overnight work, for additional certifications, and for seniority tiers.
On pay movement: yearly cost-of-living adjustments in 2021, 2022 and 2023, and a projected average 17% pay increase for current employees by the end of the agreement in June 2023 — an ILWU projection across the life of the contract, not a day-one raise.
The pay concepts in that list aren’t unique to union contracts — the guides below cover the non-union versions.
Overnight and on-call pay have non-union structures too: shift differentials explains how they’re structured at individual employers.
Where the wider market pays is a separate question: start with vet tech pay for the national and state data.
And the employer-side equivalent of a bargained wage grid is formal pay bands (employers) — tiers set by policy instead of by negotiation.
How does a union drive work at a veterinary hospital?
Private hospitals organize under the National Labor Relations Board’s election process.
The sequence, in the NLRB’s own terms:
Show of interest
A petition is filed with an NLRB Regional Office showing support from at least 30% of employees.The election
The election is decided by a majority of votes cast — the votes actually cast, not a majority of everyone in the unit, which is why turnout decides it.Certification and bargaining
A union that wins is certified as the exclusive bargaining representative, and the employer must bargain with it.The no-election route
Employees can also win recognition without an election if the employer voluntarily recognizes the union after a showing of majority support, such as signed authorization cards.
One protection applies from the first conversation, union drive or not: the NLRB says employer policies that prohibit — or chill — employees from discussing their wages are unlawful under the NLRA.
Comparing pay with your coworkers is protected activity for employees under the NLRA — with the same limits the Act sets everywhere else: independent contractors and true supervisors sit outside it.
General information, not legal advice
Can veterinarians unionize? DVM unions, explained
A veterinarian is not automatically outside the NLRA — but not every veterinarian is inside it either.
The Act excludes independent contractors and supervisors — and whether a given DVM meets the supervisor test turns on the authority they actually exercise, not their title.
For the professionals it does cover, the NLRA sorts them into their own lane: the NLRB may not place professional employees in a bargaining unit with non-professional staff unless a majority of the professionals vote for inclusion.
Whether a given veterinarian qualifies as a “professional employee” is itself a Board determination made on the facts.
That’s why a mixed unit of vets, techs and assistants isn’t the default shape: vets who qualify as professional employees would have to vote themselves in.
As for DVM-only unions: no DVM-only bargaining unit in veterinary practice could be verified from primary sources.
That is a statement about the public record, not a claim that none exists.
There’s also a structural catch, and it lands on this profession’s relief model.
Relief veterinarians and technicians who work as 1099 independent contractors aren’t covered by the NLRA at all — the Act’s definition of employee excludes independent contractors — so for anyone doing relief work, the classification question comes before the union question.
The worker side: pros and cons of a veterinary union
The case for, using only what the one verified contract delivered: a just-cause standard for discipline and termination, so neither happens without a contractual reason.
Differentials and seniority tiers make nights, certifications and tenure pay by rule rather than by request.
Cost-of-living adjustments move wages on a schedule.
And a certified union is the exclusive bargaining representative — one voice the employer must bargain with.
The honest caveats come from the same record.
Everything above traces to one contract at one hospital — the only one whose terms this research could verify.
Workers voted in February 2019 and didn’t ratify until August 2020, so a first contract took about a year and a half, and the 17% figure was a projection over the life of the contract, not a signing-day raise.
An election win starts a bargaining process; it does not guarantee any particular term.
There are tradeoffs a contract creates even when it delivers.
A bargained grid standardizes, which protects the floor but can blunt individual deals above it.
And the employment relationship becomes formal on both sides: written rules replace improvisation, which can read as protection or as rigidity depending on where you sit.
Whatever your view of organizing, the near-term lever for an individual tech is the same: know what the market pays and negotiate from it.
The guides above cover the pay side without a contract — differentials, pay structures and market rates.