ABSTRACT
Stressing the alienation of people from their work and the status inconsistencies and relative economic deprivation of whole groupings of health workers, Robin Badgley shows that the trend toward unionization and conflict and strikes has been inevitable. Badgley concludes that if the rights and health of patients and public can be preserved, then strikes can be an important catalyst for change in a society such as ours. The medical profession was opposed to government programs for community participation in health and for changes in the models for delivery of health care, and feared a change in the status of physicians. The struggle for union recognition and the associated right to strike by relatively low-income workers has entirely different origins than do similar efforts by highly professionalized health workers such as physicians. Therein lies the source of future class conflict in the larger society, and assuredly, in the health sector.
