Subject: Healthcare Can’t Find Relief, 3 Years Into The Pandemic: LRI INK

March 30, 2023

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Healthcare Can't Find Relief, 3 Years Into The Pandemic

by Kimberly Ricci

As the pandemic began to wane, workplaces reopened and masks began to drop while life returned to “normal.” However, the healthcare industry has caught no such break and still feels the pain that Covid inflicted upon hospital systems, which were already enduring chronic staffing shortages and now cannot seem to catch a break. 

 

Unions have been capitalizing on the dilemma and striking while their iron stays hot, and that’s prominently the case in New York, which was not only the earliest U.S. epicenter but remains a relative hotspot. One of the state’s top healthcare officials now describes the problem as “a bad flu season every day for three years.”

 

The ongoing workplace effects are real. Recently, multiple New York major medical centers were left with little choice but to offer 19% raises on new contracts after unions sent 7,000 nurses into strike mode, thereby adding to the chaos and disruption. 

 

Recent New York statistics also remain grim: 100 New Yorkers still die from Covid-19 each week, and mid-March saw 1,350 hospitalized Covid patients on any given day. All the while, the state’s healthcare infrastructure finds itself decimated by the past few years’ massive influx of patients and an exodus of workers leaving the field. 

 

Worker burnout prevails in New York hospitals, and understandably so. Elsewhere in the United States, healthcare remains a friction-filled industry:


  • California: The SEIU will wage a coordinated strike at 26 of Dignity Health’s facilities on March 30-31. The walkout will impact both hospital settings and outpatient locations, and although the union hasn’t pinpointed an exact number of participants, the SEIU represents over 18,000 workers in the hospital system. At issue: annual raises of 3% in 2022, whereas the union wants a 6% boost.

  • Michigan: 900+ respiratory therapists and technicians at Michigan Medicine's University Hospital and C.S. Mott Children's and Women's Hospital formed the United Michigan Medicine Allied Professional union; and Trinity Health Michigan is fielding SEIU accusations that the company fired 11 outpatient lab workers for organizing and taking a day off after hitting an “emotional breaking point.” 

  • Massachusetts: 2,500 medical residents and fellows at Mass General Brigham could soon join the SEIU’s Committee of Interns and Residents, thereby adding to aggressive union campaigns at the top of the healthcare food chain.

  • More from New York: The SEIU came for New York Gov. Kathy Hochul as her proposed budget moves towards an April 1 approval deadline. One local union leader even boldly declared, “We worked very hard to get you elected because we believed in you…  we don’t work for you – you work for us.” The union seeks increased funding for worker pay, at least enough to outpace inflation. 

 

Nationwide, nursing homes are also reeling. Earlier this month, the SEIU’s so-called “week of action” further strained facilities in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and California. Warring state guidelines are not helping matters, and that’s the case in Ohio, where nursing home workers say that they are in crisis mode, and the state’s new Nursing Home Quality and Accountability Task Force won’t allow worker input. 

 

Meanwhile, Europe is also seeing healthcare upheaval from union activity. In Britain, several healthcare unions came together to push workers into months-long strikes. The end result: an across-the-board minimum 5% wage boost for 1 million nurses and other healthcare workers. 

Links

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Union Bailout

            

NLRB General Counsel Issues Memo with Guidance to Regions on Severance Agreements

Link

            

Gag Orders in Old Severance Deals Are Retroactively Illegal, NLRB Memo Says

Link

 

NLRB General Counsel Doubles Down On Captive Audience Meetings In Response To Legal Challenge

Link

 

GC Abruzzo Continues Her Assault on NLRB Decisions She Believes Are Too Employer Friendly

Link

 

New U.S. Chamber Report Calls Out The NLRB's Continued Reliance On Flawed Mail Ballots

Link

 

Maligned Mail Ballots And Whistleblowers: The NLRB's Credibility Comes Into Question

Link

 

National Labor Relations Board Launches “Know Your Rights” Card Series

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Michigan Becomes 1st State In Decades To Repeal 'Right To Work' Law

Link

 

 

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Organizing

 

The Fledgling Union Of Southern Service Workers Flexes Its Muscle In North Carolina

Link

 

Union Membership Slips, Service Workers Still Organizing In Georgia

Link  (paywall)

 

Why Is This California Trader Joe's Pushing For A Union? 

Link

 

Chipotle Agrees To Pay Ex-Employees After Closing Store That Tried To Unionize

Link

 

Union Accuses Apple Of Firing Workers In Retaliation For Organizing

Link

 

Starbucks New CEO Urges Care For Employees Amid Labor Strife

Link

 

100 Starbucks Stores Strike To Send New CEO A Message

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Siding With Starbucks, House Republicans Probe Labor Agency

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House GOP Subpoenas Labor Authorities In Starbucks Union Dispute

Link

 

Strains Emerge Inside the Union That Beat Amazon

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Amazon Union Gets Favorable Finding On Warehouse Breakroom Access For Organizing

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CVG Amazon Air Hub Workers Taking Unionization Effort National

Link

 

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Education

            

Temple University Undergraduate Student Workers Aim To Form A Union 

Link

 

Maine Graduate Student Workers Hold Rally For Organizing Union

Link

 

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Media/Tech

 

'Saturday Night Live' Post-Production Workers Ratify Contract, Call Off Strike

Link

 

Hollywood Braces For Potential Strike As Writers Begin High-Stakes Negotiations

Link

 

Why There Is Talk Of A Writers' Strike In Hollywood

Link

 

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Manufacturing

 

Challenger Wins UAW Labor Union Presidency, Vows Reforms

Link

 

Next UAW President Will Have To Back ‘Unreasonable Expectations’ Of Autoworkers, Leaked Document From Shawn Fain’s Campaign

Link

 

Statement Of (Outgoing) UAW President Ray Curry

Link

 

UAW Monitor Denies Will Lehman Protest, Disenfranchising Thousands Of Rank-And-File Members

Link

 

Autoworkers Speak Out After Monitor Rejects Will Lehman Protest Of Fraudulent UAW Election: “The Whole Thing Smells’

Link

 

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Aviation

 

Biden's Nominee For FAA Chief Withdraws Amid Dubious Senate Support

Link

About Labor Relations INK

Labor Relations INK is published weekly and is edited by Labor Relations Institute, Inc. Feel free to pass this newsletter on to anyone you think might enjoy it. New subscribers can sign up by visiting here.


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Contributing editors for this issue: Phillip Wilson, Greg Kittinger, Michael VanDervort, and Kimberly Ricci 


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About Labor Relations Institute

LRI exists to help our clients thrive and become extraordinary workplaces. We improve the lives of working people by strengthening relationships with their leaders and each other. For over 41 years LRI has led the labor and employee relations industry, driven by our core values and our proven process, the LRI Way.

 

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