Nearly 10,000 attending physicians across the University of California health system are making a very public house call to their employer, announcing a unionization drive that organizers say is about nothing less than the future of patient care. The effort, branded UC Doctors United, kicked off Wednesday on the sidewalk outside Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital in San Francisco and is aimed at easing staffing pressures, strengthening patient safety practices, and protecting medical education and academic freedom.
The Announcement
According to The Sacramento Bee, organizers say the campaign would cover roughly 9,000 to 10,000 attending physicians across UC medical centers and already has endorsements from SEIU California, the California Nurses Association, and UAW Local 4811. The push is tied to the national SEIU Doctors United campaign that has been organizing physicians around the country, and UC doctors used a news conference outside ZSFG to formally launch their own chapter.
How It Fits With the Residents' Deal
Organizers are openly linking the attending-physician union drive to a recent win by UC resident and fellow physicians, who secured a tentative statewide agreement that they say includes an 18% pay increase, preserved fertility benefits, and improvements in radiation-safety equipment and immigrant protections. The Committee of Interns and Residents/SEIU has published details of that tentative contract on its site, CIR/SEIU. The University of California has separately acknowledged a tentative agreement in an official press release, University of California.
What Organizers Are Asking For
Longtime UCSF clinician Erica Brode described the several hundred patients she follows as essentially an extended family and said those close relationships are a big part of why she decided to organize alongside colleagues.
The Legal Path Ahead
Because the University of California is a public employer, any representation petitions and unit-definition disputes will fall under state law and land at the California Public Employment Relations Board, which administers collective bargaining for UC under HEERA. PERB has the authority to determine bargaining units, conduct secret-ballot elections, and rule on unfair-practice complaints if either side is accused of stepping over the legal line during organizing or negotiations, according to the California Public Employment Relations Board.
What to Watch Next
Organizers say the immediate goal is to fan out across the UC system, talk with colleagues, and collect the authorizations needed to formally seek bargaining rights, with an eye toward winning systemwide recognition and opening contract talks. The push is also part of a broader national wave of physician organizing that SEIU highlights on its Doctors United site, where UC hospitals are listed among organizing targets.
