Another important benefit is sick call compensation. Many residents are reluctant to call in sick because it would jeopardize the schedule of their fellow resident. The union has created a sick call coverage benefit. As such, it may cut the user as well as the intended object. If unionization is used for the promotion of patient care and resident education rather than profit maximization, we all win.
Nobody can convincingly argue against better patient care and smarter doctors.
But, if unionization is used as a lever to obtain power and fulfill individual personal agendas, temporary gains will be offset by further deterioration in the doctor-patient relationship and the loss of educational opportunity. The vision of picket lines provides a hospital image where few would want to have an operation. Unionization, motivated by the wrong agenda may have catastrophic consequences to GME as we know it. As teachers of emergency medicine, we must accept the fact that unionization is here. It is our job to insure that house staff have the facts and the understanding to apply it constructively.