In a move that has drawn international interest, nearly 740 doctors, residents and medical students in Quebec are demanding that the province not follow through on promises to raise their pay.

Like many things related to Canada’s health care debate, the reasons behind the extraordinary request from the doctors are complex and, in some cases, political. But a petition detailing their concerns appeared online in late February after several nurses in the province set off a discussion about the medical system by describing their working conditions, including an unmanageable number of patients and marathon shifts extended by mandatory overtime.

The doctors want the province to take money that would have been used to increase their incomes and give it to nurses and other health care workers who are dealing with issues like pay cuts and crushing workloads.

“The system has to change — it will not survive much longer,” said Isabelle Leblanc, a family physician in Montreal who is one of the petition’s organizers and a professor at McGill University. “For a long time the system has revolved around physicians and hospitals.”