Posts tagged healthcare
Workers at World of Warcraft studio Proletariat withdraw union petition
January 26, 2023 // Workers at Boston-based World of Warcraft support studio Proletariat (also known as Blizzard Boston) are pulling their petition with the National Labor Relations Board, and will not vote on a union. They announced their petition in late December, but withdrew the application on Tuesday. A representative of Communications Workers of America blamed management’s “confrontational tactics” for the withdrawn petition, claiming the company held “a series of meetings that demoralized and disempowered the group, making a free and fair election impossible.” Proletariat Workers Alliance was looking to secure the company’s current paid time-off plan, as well as flexible remote options, healthcare benefits, and ensuring transparency and diversity are top priorities.
CNH Industrial union workers at two U.S. plants reject proposed contract
January 9, 2023 // The union did not disclose how many workers at the two plants rejected the four-year deal, which included wage increases of 25% to 38% according to CNH on Sunday. Still, union members said the proposed contract failed to provide enough of a raise to combat inflation, additional vacation days or better healthcare coverage.
Healthcare Workers, Especially Physicians, Slow to Unionize in Past Decade: Study
January 6, 2023 // Some physicians, however, may oppose unions because of the cost of union dues or fears that union goals might not align with their responsibility to patients. Doctors and other healthcare workers are often concerned about the ethics of unionizing, Onello said. “They see this looming tactic of a strike or work stoppage and think, ‘I could never do that to my patients,’ ” Onello said. “But the process of collective bargaining, when it’s working well, should not lead to a strike if both sides are negotiating in good faith to reach a fair and workable agreement.”
‘Neglected for far too long’: RISD essential workers union votes to authorize strike
January 5, 2023 // But discussions over wage increases remain at the center of negotiations. According to Suazo, a vast majority of the RISD workers in the bargaining unit currently make $15 to $18 dollars an hour. “The bargaining unit members believe that they have been neglected for far too long by the school,” Suazo said, adding that no “significant move” has occurred regarding wages since the strike authorization.
UC strike energizes unprecedented national surge of union organizing by academic workers
January 3, 2023 // In 2022 alone, graduate students representing 30,000 peers at nearly a dozen institutions filed documents with the National Labor Relations Board for a union election. They include USC, Northwestern, Yale, Johns Hopkins, the University of Chicago, Boston University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Caltech plans to officially kick off its organizing campaign this month, and other academic researchers are working to form unions at the University of Alaska, Western Washington University, the National Institutes of Health and such influential think tanks as the Brookings Institution and Urban Institute. Princeton University, Columbia, University of Pennsylvania, Pasadena, Caltech, Pardee Rand Graduate School, University of Wisconsin–Madison
Geisinger CMC employees vote to unionize
December 27, 2022 // Nurse practitioners and physician assistants at Geisinger Community Medical Center in Scranton voted overwhelmingly Thursday to unionize with the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals, the union announced Friday. With the 44 to 4 vote, the employees join 350 Geisinger CMC professionals and specialists who voted to join PASNAP on Dec. 15, and 525 Geisinger CMS nurses already represented by the union. In a statement, PASNAP President Maureen May, RN, said union representation has never been more important in the face of COVID-19.
Year in Review: Worker strikes surged in 2022 amid new unionization wave
December 27, 2022 // There were 374 worker strikes in 2022, according to researchers at Cornell University, a hefty 39% increase from the year before. There were several factors at play in the growth, a major one being that workers had far more leverage this past year due to mass labor shortages. Healthcare workers made up a big contingent of the organized labor movement in 2022. In September, 15,000 nurses in Minnesota staged a three-day walkout in what was likely the largest private-sector nurse strike in the country’s history. There were several other strikes by healthcare workers over the past year as well.
Healthcare workers strike at Windham Hospital
October 26, 2022 // For the second time in four weeks, local healthcare workers in Willimantic went on strike. The nurses union put up picket lines in front of Windham Hospital four weeks ago. On Monday, the union represented skilled service workers and technical professionals working at Windham Hospital. Healthcare workers at Hartford HealthCare’s Windham Memorial Community Hospital said they have been negotiating wage increases, improvements to employee healthcare plans, and improved working conditions surrounding forced overtime.
No agreement reached yet as Kaiser mental health worker strike reaches one month
September 21, 2022 //
St. James Mayo Clinic Nurses Overwhelmingly Vote to Remove AFSCME Union; Certified by Labor Board
August 2, 2022 // National Right to Work Foundation legal aid has recently assisted workers in several decertification efforts in Minnesota. In addition to the St. James Mayo Clinic, hundreds of nurses at Mayo Clinic in Mankato, Minnesota recently voted to remove the Minnesota Nurses Association. Meanwhile, two groups of employees at four Cuyuna Regional Medical Center locations recently filed petitions seeking decertification votes seeking to remove SEIU union officials. Because the NLRB has made the decertification process unnecessarily complicated, workers often need to turn to Foundation attorneys for free legal aid in navigating the process. The Foundation recently aided metalworkers at Minneapolis Washer and Stamping, who endured a year and a half of litigation, but have finally voted out Communications Workers of America (CWA) union officials.