Posts tagged merger
Union, hospital workers voice concerns over proposed WHS-UPMC merger
October 6, 2023 // Petro said her husband, sister, and nephew work at WHS. “If UPMC takes over and cuts wages, benefits or staffing, you see how that won’t just be a problem for me, it will upend my entire family,” said Petro. She noted SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania’s recent complaint filed with the Department of Justice alleging UPMC, the largest private employer in the state, is abusing its position to suppress wages, increase workload, and keep workers from departing to other jobs. “A UPMC takeover will not be good for Washington. We can do better. We have to do better, for the 2,000 employees and their families that count on Washington Health System for their livelihoods,” said Petro. “In the Lehigh Valley, an MRI at St. Luke’s costs $650 whereas at the (Lehigh Valley Health Network), it costs $2,010. Good data suggests this price variation and the ability to command higher and higher prices by acquiring local hospitals is one of the key drivers of consolidations,” Gabriel said. “Larger hospitals want to get bigger and bigger and that’s important to note because frequently the reason they give for consolidation is lowering our health care costs.”
Warner Bros. Animation and Cartoon Network Production Workers Launch Unionization Effort
July 21, 2023 // Sixty-six staffers at Warner Bros. Animation and 22 at Cartoon Network filed a petition for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board on Wednesday and simultaneously requested voluntary recognition from management at the Warner Bros. Discovery subsidiaries. Collectively, the group includes workers in roles like production manager, digital production assistant, IT technician, production coordinator, production assistant, design production coordinator, assistant production manager and senior assistant production manager. “Although many might not think it, production is a specialized skill; we might not be artists or writers, but what we bring to the table goes beyond traditional creativity and gets content on the air,” Warner Bros. Animation production manager Hannah Ferenc said in a statement about the organization effort. “Having lived through the existing state of the animation industry for the past seven years, I want to make sure that not only our current workers, but all those who choose to join us in the future, can feel secure in following their passion by earning livable wages and being treated with the dignity and respect they deserve.”
US Brick workers seek to overturn policy preventing them from voting out Teamsters union
March 15, 2022 // “The successor bar undermines the NLRA’s core purpose of employee free choice by disregarding employees’ actual desires and past experiences with their union representative. It also fails to recognize the Board’s highest calling: to conduct elections when there is a question of representation and to ensure employees are represented by a union of their choosing,” Atkins’ request for review states.
Indiana US Brick Employees Challenge NLRB Policy Trapping Them in Teamsters Union Ranks They Overwhelmingly Oppose
March 8, 2022 // NLRB-invented “successor bar” blocks employees’ statutory right to vote out union despite 70 percent of workers wanting Teamsters removed