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JAMA. 1998;279:498.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

At its 1997 Interim Meeting in December, the American Medical Association House of Delegates voted to support the right of resident physicians to negotiate collectively with their residency programs. Collective negotiations could have a tremendous effect on residents' work environment. Resident organizations have used collective negotiations to address concerns such as work hours, workload, and employment benefits. They have also used collective negotiations to improve patient care. For example, in 1975, because resident physicians at Cook County Hospital in Chicago considered the hospital's equipment standards to be unacceptably low, they negotiated for basic items such as a working electrocardiogram machine on each floor of the hospital.

This issue recently gained prominence when Boston City Hospital, a public institution, merged with the private Boston University Hospital to form Boston Medical Center in Boston, Mass. Under the National Labor Relations Board's interpretation of the National Labor Relations Act, residents have had the . . . [Full Text of this Article]