Collective bargaining by medical residents

 The WSJ has the story:

Medical Residents Unionize Over Pay, Working Conditions. Doctors-in-training say they want to advocate for themselves and patients  By Dominique Mosbergen

"Physicians-in-training at top teaching hospitals across the country are joining unions, demanding higher pay and better working conditions.

"The Committee of Interns and Residents, the largest group representing doctors in residency and fellowship programs, said it added chapters at five teaching hospitals last year and two in 2021, up from a prepandemic pace of roughly one a year. CIR, which is affiliated with the Service Employees International Union, said it represents about 15% of the nation’s 140,000 residents and fellows. 

"The pandemic’s strains spurred residents to organize, said Simranvir Kaur, a fourth-year resident specializing in obstetrics and gynecology at Stanford Medicine, where most of some 1,400 Stanford residents voted to form a union last May. 

...

"Stanford, which is based in Palo Alto, Calif., said it is negotiating a union contract with its residents and declined to comment further.

...

"The American Medical Association’s ethics code advises physician unions not to engage in strikes by withholding essential medical services from patients. 

"CIR said that residents’ first priority is patients and that unionized residents would vote to strike only as a last resort. The last time a CIR union went on strike was in 1981."