UC Doctors Seek to Unionize 10,000 Colleagues in Massive Campaign

Doctors at a press conference held by UCSF attending doctors to announce the UC unionization effort with SEIU Doctors United at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital on July 23, 2026 in San Francisco, California. Doctors have historically not formed unions, but interest in collective bargaining has risen in recent years.

Doctors at a press conference held by UCSF attending doctors to announce the UC unionization effort with SEIU Doctors United at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital on July 23, 2026 in San Francisco, California. Doctors have historically not formed unions, but interest in collective bargaining has risen in recent years. (Thos Robinson/Getty Images for SEIU Doctors United)

Attending physicians say they aim to improve working conditions, protect research and improve patient care at UC medical centers.

The University of California is confronting a large unionization effort among employees who have historically stayed outside of unions: doctors.

At Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital on Thursday, doctors and physicians announced their plans to form a union with SEIU Doctors United — a partnership between Doctors Council, Service Employees International Union and Committee of Interns and Residents that represents more than 45,000 doctors nationwide.

The move points to a marked shift in the healthcare industry, where in the past, it has been somewhat rare for generally highly paid doctors to form unions.

But interest in collective bargaining within the medical profession has accelerated, particularly post-pandemic, as more physicians report deteriorating working conditions and a loss of clinical autonomy amidst an increasingly consolidated and profit-driven industry.

Doctors attend a press conference held by UCSF attending doctors to announce the UC unionization effort with SEIU Doctors United at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital on July 23, 2026, in San Francisco, California.

Attending physicians at UC, who make clinical decisions and often supervise residents and medical students, said they are stretched thin with unsustainable patient loads, understaffing and less decision-making power — concerns often echoed by nurses and other patient care workers with higher union participation rates.

“Sometimes I do feel, especially as a primary care physician, overwhelmed,” Dr. Radhika Rajan, a UCSF pediatrician at SF General, told KQED. “The work that we have to do does not stop when we are leaving [the] clinic.

“So many of us are excited to unionize because the goal is to be able to have the resources to provide better care for our patients,” she said.

UC declined to comment on the attending physicians’ organizing campaign.