Posts tagged affordable healthcare

    Striketober Is Back As Workers Fight To Close The Wage Gap

    October 4, 2022 // Strike Activity Heats As Workers Grapple With Covid Inequities Workers have long been frustrated by a wide range of issues–from low wages to poor working conditions, but Covid brought these problems into sharp relief. Workers who interact with customers in person, from medical staff to restaurant workers, realized that while companies considered them essential, they also considered them expendable. As the immediate horrors of Covid fade into the rearview, the way workers were treated has left a permanent scar. The combination of a lack of basic benefits (like healthcare), poor working conditions, unfair labor practices and the extreme wealth disparity between business owners and workers has triggered action—which is now showing up in worker walkouts, says Kate Bronfenbrenner, director of labor education research at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations.

    Hundreds of unionized caregivers go on strike at McKenzie-Willamette

    December 6, 2021 // Hundreds of union workers at McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center walked out Monday morning at 7 a.m. The hospital caregivers, represented by SEIU 49, have held ongoing negotiations and condcuted a two-day strike in early October. The union said progress has not been made on their demands, which include: affordable healthcare, higher wages, and additional PTO or COVID protection payments.