Posts tagged hospitals
Citing ‘burnout,’ doctors with ChristianaCare file papers to form system’s first labor union
May 15, 2024 // The petition, which only required a 30% vote, was delivered to the NLRB office in Philadelphia late Tuesday. The union would be the first in the 136-year history of ChristianaCare, Delaware’s largest private employer with about 11,600 staff members. Should the doctors elect to form a union, the next step would be collective bargaining on a contract to address duties, wages and other issues.
California’s Early-Career Doctors Unionize, Demand Fair Pay and Conditions
April 9, 2024 // Increased pay, overtime compensation, housing stipends and more manageable schedules are at stake. Unions representing residents have bargained for fertility benefits to support delayed family planning. Dr. Berneen Bal, a third-year psychiatry resident at Kaiser’s Oakland Medical Center, said some colleagues have even traveled out of state where it’s cheaper to freeze eggs. “As more residencies have unionized, it’s put greater criticism on this training structure that we’ve all just accepted for so long,” Bal said.
More than 75,000 Kaiser Permanente workers threaten strike if labor agreement not reached
September 25, 2023 // The Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions warned Kaiser that more than 75,000 workers will strike in early October if an agreement is not reached by the end of next week. The unions say understaffing has led to dangerous wait times for patients. Kaiser Permanente is the largest nonprofit health-care organization in the U.S. serving nearly 13 million patients. Kaiser has called the unions’ claims misleading and urged employees to resist a call for a strike.
Dunkin’ faces first union push in 12 years
September 5, 2023 // Recently, SEIU’s Union of Southern Service Workers has begun working toward a new model of unionism that relies on a combination of organizing across industries in specific cities, shop floor actions and regulatory pressure campaigns. The USSW’s strategy resulted in a strike at a South Carolina Waffle House earlier this summer, and a march on the boss at an Atlanta Dunkin’ earlier this month. Why BCTGM, which is not affiliated with SEIU, chose to pursue a union election at a 23-person Dunkin’ Donuts in Ohio is not clear. But it could signal that the upsurge in labor activity at the margins of the restaurant industry has not yet dissipated. BCTGM members struck Kellogg’s plants in 2021, and a Hormel plant in 2022.
The Impact Of Doctors’ Reluctance To Unionize On Private Practice
August 18, 2023 // Unionization empowers individuals to collectively negotiate better working conditions, fair compensation and greater control over their professional lives. Unfortunately, the medical profession has seen limited progress in this regard. Driven by a deeply ingrained culture of autonomy and individualism, many doctors remain hesitant to join unions or professional organizations that advocate for their rights.
Some of California’s best-paid public employees say they’re ready to strike. Here’s why
August 7, 2023 // Some of California’s highest-paid public employees are in an intensifying labor battle with the Newsom administration over staffing shortages at state prisons and hospitals that workers say endanger patients and staff. The union representing doctors and psychiatrists working in California correctional facilities said that 91% of voting members authorized a strike Monday. Non-competitive salaries, strenuous working conditions and an overreliance on higher-paid contracted doctors, make it difficult to hire staff physicians, said Dr. Stuart Bussey, president of the umbrella Union of American Physicians and Dentists.
Minnesota Nurses Association: sit-in at Capitol will continue until safe staffing secured
May 15, 2023 // The sit-in organized by the Minnesota Nurses Association’s will continue at the State Capitol until what MNA deems safe staffing is secured for all Minnesota patients and nurses, the association announced Friday. The sit-in began Tuesday following actions from Mayo Clinic Health Systems, according to an association news release. They’re calling on Gov. Tim Walz and legislators to stand with patients and nurses instead of corporate health executives at Mayo Clinic Health Systems.
Physicians are moving to unionize: Where and when
March 27, 2023 // If housestaff unionize, more than 2,500 residents and fellows at MGB hospitals would join the Committee of Interns and Residents, according to The Boston Globe. This includes trainees at Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Mass Eye and Ear, Newton-Wellesley Hospital, Salem Hospital, and Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital Boston. Additionally, resident physicians and fellows at Philadelphia-based University of Pennsylvania Health System seek to form a union. The Feb. 21 filing seeks an election to vote on representation by the Committee of Interns and Residents. The union would represent about 1,500 interns, residents, chief residents and fellows. And a combined 1,600 physicians from Loma Linda (Calif.) University Health and the University at Buffalo (N.Y.) filed petitions in February with the National Labor Relations Board to join the Union of American Physicians and Dentists.
Labor Tries City-By-City Push In California For $25 Minimum Wage At Private Medical Facilities
October 25, 2022 // What began as a 10-city campaign by the union has been winnowed to November ballot measures in just two cities in Los Angeles County, reflecting expensive political jockeying between labor and industry. And the $25 minimum wage isn’t the only campaign being waged by SEIU-UHW this cycle — the union is also trying for the third time to get dialysis industry reforms passed. A ballot issue committee called the California Association of Hospitals and Health Systems — with funding from Kaiser Permanente of Northern California, Adventist Health, Cedars-Sinai, Dignity Health, and other hospitals and health systems — opposes a $25 minimum wage because it raises costs for private, but not public, hospitals and health care facilities. Opponents have latched on to this disparity by calling it the “unequal pay measure.” An analysis commissioned by the California Hospital Association estimated that the change would raise costs for private facilities by $392 million a year, a 6.9% increase, across the 10 cities.
Special Notice for Nurses in the Twin Cities and Twin Ports
September 9, 2022 // The Minnesota Nurses Association has scheduled a three-day strike to begin on September 12 at 16 hospitals located in the Twin Cities, Duluth, Moose Lake, and Superior, Wisconsin. Reportedly, the strike will affect up to 15,000 nurses. The list of reportedly affected hospitals is below. While the threatened strike has not yet occurred, the situation raises serious concerns for workers who believe there is much to lose from a union-ordered strike. If a strike occurs, employees have the right under federal labor law to rebuff union officials’ strike demands, but it is important for you to get informed before you do so.