Posts tagged staffing
MAINE: Fort Kent hospital nurses voting on unionizing Wednesday
January 22, 2024 // The NMMC nurses’ platform, according to a bulletin from the Maine State Nurses Association and National Nurses United, is for safer staffing and scheduling practices, retention-focused benefits, job protections, and fair and transparent wages that reward years of experience and longevity. They are also seeking an RN-elected committee to give them an equal say in patient care standards, nurse-led workplace violence prevention, adequate supplies and equipment, and improved differentials for floating shifts, charge, and precepting.
Hawaii: Kapiolani Medical Center nurses vote to authorize strike
January 9, 2024 // The nurses have been working without a contract since their last three-year contract expired Nov. 30. The nurses, who are represented by the Hawai'i Nurses' Association, Office and Professional Employees International Union Local 50, AFL-CIO, began their negotiations with management on Sept. 13.
UAW President Shawn Fain plans to keep automakers sweating
January 1, 2024 // "I don't like what I've seen in my work career with the UAW leadership, where they were too damn close to the companies," UAW President Shawn Fain told CNN earlier this month. But when asked if things work better for his members when there's a less contentious or more contentious relationship between the UAW and the Big Three, Fain responded, "We just negotiated the most successful contracts in our history," he said. "For the last 30 years that I've been a member, we went backwards. So I like to let the body of work speak for itself," Fain said. The success of those contracts is the reason that Shawn Fain is CNN Business' labor leader of the year.
More SoCal hotel workers agree to new deal with Marriott, Hilton
December 18, 2023 // More than 1,700 housekeepers, cooks, dishwashers, servers and front desk workers signed the deal, according to Unite Here Local 11, which said 20 high-end Southland hotels have now signed new contract agreements. Those employees work at the Irvine Marriott, W Hotel Westwood, SLS Beverly Hills, Westin LAX, Sheraton Grand DTLA, JW Marriott LA Live, Ritz-Carlton LA Live, Courtyard Marriott DTLA, Residence Inn DTLA and Hilton Irvine. - Language improvements, including historic Equal Justice language that, among other things, will help to provide access to union jobs for formerly incarcerated individuals and unprecedented protections for immigrant workers.
INDIANAPOLIS: Nurses at IU Health’s University and Methodist hospitals eye unionizing
December 11, 2023 // Other IU Health hospitals would not be part of the union. IU Health is currently in the process of expanding its downtown Indianapolis facilities – with the expectation that University and Methodist hospitals will eventually be consolidated sometime in 2027. “In the next five-plus years, or whenever that big building is done, we will be one hospital,” Armes said. Travel nurses would not be included in the union, but Armes said they have been supportive of their organizing. Bailey Pollard is another nurse working to unionize the two hospitals. He said nursing shortages are not a problem unique to IU Health.
Opinion: NLRB says ‘common law’ — and common sense — defines joint employers
December 5, 2023 // The mandate, to take effect Dec. 26, says when two employers — think a local McDonald’s franchise and McDonald’s headquarters in Chicago — control a worker’s toil, from wages and hours to duties and work rules to hiring and firing to uniforms and training, then both are responsible for obeying or breaking Labor law. And that means it should be easier for workers to organize and bargain without being bounced from pillar to post when it comes to whom to bargain with. Using that same “basic common sense” explanation, AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler called the new rule “an important win” for workers.
Bitter strike over as nurses, N.J. hospital reach tentative agreement after 120+ days
December 3, 2023 // For months, the union members went without paychecks and benefits, which the hospital had cut off in September. The two sides were at a standstill, and for a time, it was unclear how they would find a path forward. The strike drew national attention, as U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) visited Rutgers University in October to hold a Senate committee hearing on the labor dispute and hospital staffing guidelines. At the event. Sanders expressed support for the nurses and the ratios they sought while lambasting hospital leaders for not appearing. The hospital — ranked the fifth best in New Jersey by U.S. News and World Report — had maintained that strict staffing ratios would not allow it the necessary flexibility during times of high patient volume. But many nurses said they were working in untenable conditions, often forced to juggle five or six patients during a given shift, which they said impacted the patients’ well-being as well as the nurses’ ability to provide adequate care.
Southwest, American Airlines passengers face looming winter woes
November 28, 2023 // "We're behind the industry in every area you can think of in our contract. So we're asking for quite a bit. Obviously, wages, retirement, disability. One of the big pillars that other airlines didn't have a huge issue with, but we do, is our scheduling system," Santoro said.
If SEPTA Transit Police go on strike, who fills the void? What you need to know
November 21, 2023 // With a SEPTA strike, figures show more than 250 SEPTA police officers won't come to work. The officers cover SEPTA property across the city and into Delaware, Bucks, Chester and Montgomery Counties – as well as regional rail that reaches Trenton and Wilmington. At the massive 69th Street transportation hub, SEPTA police stay busy answering calls.
CVS, Walgreens pharmacists move to unionize
November 14, 2023 // The latest pharmacist walkout, originally dubbed “Pharmageddon” over fear of a widespread walkout with large ramifications, took place last week but ended up having minimal participation and impact. A Walgreens spokesperson told Reuters the protest closed only three pharmacies temporarily. CVS Chief Executive Karen Lynch told Reuters some workers called in sick at a few stores but there were no closures or disruption in service.