• Revenue Cycle Management
  • COVID-19
  • Reimbursement
  • Diabetes Awareness Month
  • Risk Management
  • Patient Retention
  • Staffing
  • Medical Economics® 100th Anniversary
  • Coding and documentation
  • Business of Endocrinology
  • Telehealth
  • Physicians Financial News
  • Cybersecurity
  • Cardiovascular Clinical Consult
  • Locum Tenens, brought to you by LocumLife®
  • Weight Management
  • Business of Women's Health
  • Practice Efficiency
  • Finance and Wealth
  • EHRs
  • Remote Patient Monitoring
  • Sponsored Webinars
  • Medical Technology
  • Billing and collections
  • Acute Pain Management
  • Exclusive Content
  • Value-based Care
  • Business of Pediatrics
  • Concierge Medicine 2.0 by Castle Connolly Private Health Partners
  • Practice Growth
  • Concierge Medicine
  • Business of Cardiology
  • Implementing the Topcon Ocular Telehealth Platform
  • Malpractice
  • Influenza
  • Sexual Health
  • Chronic Conditions
  • Technology
  • Legal and Policy
  • Money
  • Opinion
  • Vaccines
  • Practice Management
  • Patient Relations
  • Careers

Should these physicians join a union?

Article

I'm one of several physicians employed by a hospital. None of us are supervisors. When we asked for a raise, the hospital cut off negotiations and threatened to fire us. Can we form a union to negotiate for better wages?

I'm one of several physicians employed by a hospital. None of us are supervisors. When we asked for a raise, the hospital cut off negotiations and threatened to fire us. Can we form a union to negotiate for better wages?

Possibly, provided you're truly employees and not just independent physicians working at the hospital. If that's the case, your right to form a union depends on who owns the hospital.

If it's a state-owned hospital, you have the right to form a union under the First Amendment's right of association. And that union can negotiate for you-if your state is one of those that require a public employer to engage in collective bargaining with its employees. Not all do.

When a hospital is privately owned, the National Labor Relations Act regulates employees' rights to form a union and engage in collective bargaining. Still, the hospital may not threaten or fire workers for trying to improve their wages; the NLRA protects employees' rights to act together to improve their situation, even in the absence of a union. But the hospital is not obligated to negotiate unless employees have designated a union to represent them.

This answer to our reader's question was provided by: Barbara Fick, Assoc. Professor, Notre Dame Law School, Notre Dame, IN

Send your practice management questions to: PMQA Editor, Medical Economics, 123 Tice Blvd., Suite 300,Woodcliff Lake, NJ 07677-7664, or send an e-mail to mepractice@advanstar.com (please include your regular postal address).

Related Videos
Peter H. Reilly, HUB International
Peter H. Reilly, HUB International: ©HUB International
Peter H. Reilly, HUB International
Robert E. Oshel, PhD
Gary Price, MD, MBA
Victor J. Dzau, MD, gives expert advice
Ron Holder, MHA, gives expert advice
remote patient monitoring
referral
© 2023 MJH Life Sciences

All rights reserved.