One week after the AMA decided to form a union, the New York State Psychological Association took the first steps toward affiliating with the New York State United Teachers/AFT. NYSPA president Marianne Jackson says the psychologists want to link up with the union to counter the strength of the managed care industry. "Managed care increasingly threatens access to health care by unreasonably limiting coverage for psychological services," she notes.

NYSPA spokeswoman Diane Brenner said NYSUT would give the psychologists more clout in the state legislature. "There's strength in numbers," she says. "We hope the union will provide us access to those folks we need to talk to where we can achieve a win-win situation for our members and their patients," she adds. NYSPA has 3,300 members. NYSUT has more than 420,000. The details of affiliation remain to be worked out.