Why don’t east Asia’s doctors go on strike?

Taiwan has over 10 different medical professional unions and hospital labour unions, with a total membership of over 8000 people. During the pandemic, healthcare professionals took to the streets many times to protest for compensation for working during the pandemic. But one thing they have never done is strike. In the context of headline making strikes by peers in countries around the world, including the UK,1 some US cities,2 and France,3 this may seem surprising.Chang Heng-hao, a representative of the Taipei Doctors Union—established in 2017 and the first physician union in Taiwan—says he would not expect to see doctors going on strike in the next 10 to 20 years. The reasons are not just limited membership but culture, both in terms of the way that labour disputes are mediated and also the fact that many healthcare workers still find the idea of going on strike morally challenging.Bureaucratic barriersHowever, things are…
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