A smart lawyer said he sees this all the time. People fight forever to get something. They sue. They protest. When they finally get what they want, they freeze.

“There must be a trick. How could the other side agree? After abusing us for so long, how do we know this isn’t a trick?“

Five years of fee cuts, unilateral actions, heckling and sloppy legislation have left doctors feeling abused. The relationship between doctors and government has been torn beyond easy repair.

Negotiators have started to mend a working relationship. They wrestled for months and finally got a framework each team could support.

The binding interest arbitration framework (BAF) represents months of debate and attempts to find common ground. They shaped a BAF that looks far better than many of us expected.

Some doctors wanted a framework that would guarantee a win in negotiations. They wanted a trigger that would be fun to pull. But neither side should want to go to arbitration. A negotiated agreement should always look more attractive than an arbitrated one, for both sides.

Concerns About Binding Arbitration

So after years of asking for it, doctors in Ontario have a BAF offer.  Some have serious concerns. Here are some of the things they tell me: Continue reading “Concerns About Binding Arbitration”

Optimists see change as opportunity. Pessimists find change to be irritating, risky at best. Realists weigh change one case at a time.

Doctors face a paradigm shift in how they interact with government. Binding interest arbitration (BA) promises to fix a power imbalance between doctors and government. Many docs have wanted BA for years.

But will BA fix everything between doctors and government?

Are there reasons to vote against BA?

Reasons to Vote No

A few doctors believe that there are 4 insuperable reasons to vote against this contract. If you agree with these four, then you should vote No, too. Continue reading “Looking for Reasons to Oppose Binding Arbitration”

After years of wrestling a more powerful opponent, doctors opened their emails to find that government had offered a truce.

I never expected to see this.

Who would give up such advantage?

Government used to rule supreme. It could legislate whatever it wanted.

Why would government change its mind and give up absolute power?

A part of me must have believed that this would happen. Why else would I have spent years lamenting government power and control?

In hindsight, things had to change.

Government was trying to lead a horse to water that would not drink. Continue reading “Binding Interest Arbitration – A New Era?”