Determinants of multi-employer bargaining in metropolitan hospitals.

To join with the others or go it alone--that is the question faced by every hospital and health care facility where a unionization drive is either on the horizon or in progress. The factors that have entered into the decisions of hospital trustees and administrators on this touchy problem are the subject of this article. The authors discuss the experiences of the hospital industry in six areas across the country and analyze the factors involved in the evolution of different bargaining structures.