It's Legal For Employed Physicians To Unionize. And Strike, If Necessary.

[Birdstrike]

"Doctors strike shows union push"
Doctors strike shows union push

"Dr. Amol Doshi, one of the staff physicians who didn’t report to work Tuesday, said his decision to join the union and to strike came down to disagreements with management over how student health services is run. He said only about 15 minutes is provided for each patient, regardless of whether that student has one or several medical issues that need to be addressed.

We feel like our professional autonomy is being compromised in how we can take care of our patients."

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[Birdstrike]

"Doctors Unionize to Resist the Medical Machine" Doctors Unionize to Resist the Medical Machine

"We’re trained to be leaders, but they treat us like assembly line workers,” said Dr. Brittany Ellison, a hospitalist in the group.

 

[Birdstrike]

"Physician Strikes"
http://journal.chestnet.org/article/S0012-3692(15)52405-7/pdf

"As a result of that shift, physicians will now be held to externally imposed organizational performance standards that may put them at odds with upholding their Hippocratic obligations. Employment in most of these organization is 'at will,' meaning that an employee can be hired and fired at will for good, bad, or no reason at all; therefore, employee physicians are now at serious risk of being disciplined or terminated suddenly without recourse. "

 

[Money Moniker]

Yep. Being a unionized employee sucks. Physicians should be small business owners or full equity partners in larger businesses, not unionized widgets. But you know what sucks worse than being a unionized employee? Being a non-unionized employee, which is why I always laugh in exasperation when doctors disparage unionization only to "yes massa" for their corporate overseer. Unionization is an imperfect solution to the destruction of private practice by government apparatchiks and the corporate plutocracy, but unless you've got a better idea and a realistic pathway for implementation, don't knock it.

 

[Vandalia]

The key word, of course, is employed. If you are an independent contractor, you can still form a union, and you can still technically strike, but their are basically no protections; your "employer" can simply fire you and is not required to actually negotiate with you. Think of unions in the 1880's and John Rockefeller.

However, strikes of a sort have worked. I know in WV that the physicians basically cancelled all elective procedures in a bid for malpractice reform 15-20 years ago. A strike that actually worked. I don't know the details, but there has to be a WV physician around here who was part of that action.

 

[BoardingDoc]

The key word, of course, is employed. If you are an independent contractor, you can still form a union, and you can still technically strike, but their are basically no protections; your "employer" can simply fire you and is not required to actually negotiate with you. Think of unions in the 1880's and John Rockefeller.

However, strikes of a sort have worked. I know in WV that the physicians basically cancelled all elective procedures in a bid for malpractice reform 15-20 years ago. A strike that actually worked. I don't know the details, but there has to be a WV physician around here who was part of that action.

Interesting article about it and similar situations here: Malpractice crisis: Some surgeons walk off the job | 2003-03-01 | AHC Media: Continuing Medical Education Publishing

 

[EctopicFetus]

Honestly those of us who work for CMGs are crazy not to do this. You make less money and have less power. I see very little upside making money for the Lynns, Doms, and Bill Sanger’s of the world.

 

[iqe2010]

A buddy of mine works as a floater nurse in two ERs in a small city (150k population). He tells me the ER docs stay walking out because of crappy admin.

The kicker is there's always someone willing to take their place.