AMA doctors vote on organized labor

June 23, 1999
Web posted at: 9:50 a.m. EDT (1350 GMT)

CHICAGO (Reuters) -- Avoiding the word "union," an American Medical Association committee recommended Tuesday that the AMA form a labor arm for doctors. The AMA's 494-member House of Delegates were to vote on the issue Wednesday as the group's annual policy meeting nears a close.

The committee said it "believes that the conditions in the current environment are severe and physicians have expressed a strong preference for having as many advocacy tools as possible available to them, including collective bargaining."

The panel, consisting of seven physicians, heard arguments earlier in the week for and against collective bargaining, an issue that arises from the cost-cutting controls insurance companies and managed care companies have put on fees.

About 7 percent of U.S. doctors already belong to unions, and about one in every five U.S. doctors is considered "employed" and thus eligible to bargain collectively -- mostly those working for hospitals.

Those who operate as independent contractors are proscribed by federal antitrust laws from forming unions.

The committee recommended that the AMA "immediately implement a national labor organization under the National Labor Relations Act to support the development and operation of local negotiating units as an option for employed physicians."

The committee also urged the AMA to vigorously support proposed federal legislation that would change antitrust law to make it easier for the majority of U.S. physicians to bargain collectively. If that legislation passes, the committee said, the AMA should be ready to provide labor organization backing to all self-employed doctors.

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