Portside

More than 100 pediatricians who work for Packard Children's Health Alliance, part of Stanford Medicine Children's Health, have filed to unionize with the Union of American Physicians and Dentists (UAPD).

Over the past few years, from California to New England, medical residents have been unionizing and striking by the thousands. They’ve composed some of the largest new units to unionize in the United States.

With huge shifts over the past decade in the way doctors are employed — half of all doctors now work for a health system or large medical group — the idea of unionizing is not only being explored but gaining traction within the profession.

A new generation of doctors struggling with ever-increasing workloads and crushing student debt is helping drive unionization efforts in a profession that historically hasn't organized.

Resident physicians at Loma Linda University Health voted to unionize on June 22. The historic vote is the latest chapter in the showdown between a Seventh-day Adventist healthcare institution and organized labor.

University of California student-care doctors went on strike Tuesday to protest unfair labor practices.