Subject: Healthcare Industry Still Hurting: LRI INK

August 18, 2022

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Healthcare Industry Still Hurting

by Kimberly Ricci

Last year’s so-called “Striketober” phenomenon made plenty of headlines for obvious reasons, including widespread worker frustration with pandemic-related conditions and ongoing economic stressors. Yet media coverage amplified and over-politicized the issue with the reality being that strikes remain relatively rare in most industries. 

 

However, the healthcare industry stood out as (and remains) an exception with workers heading to the picket lines to a consistently frequent degree (and some strikes lasting hundreds of days). Staffing shortages, budget shortfalls, and spiking workplace violence all provide fodder for unions to strike while the striking iron is hot. 

 

It’s no wonder, then, that contract renewal negotiations continue to stall out between healthcare employers and unions across the U.S., which translates into workers landing in Strike City. That’s not a place that any employer wants to see its workers visit (let alone on an extended basis), but that is where we’re going in this healthcare roundup:

  • Kaiser Permanente (one of the largest healthcare employers in the U.S) still finds itself plagued by worker rallies. Last November, a total of 32,000 Kaiser workers plucked up picket signs, and the trend continues this week in Northern California with over 2,000 mental health therapists waging an open-ended strike after a year of stalled contract negotiations. These workers argue that they’re stretched to the limits (one clinician allotted for every 2,600 Kaiser members) with this strike causing Kaiser to cancel countless mental health appointments.

  • The Minnesota Nurses Association will soon send 15,000 nurses to the picket lines after voting this week due to failed contract negotiations. This could wage one of U.S. history’s biggest nursing strikes after the union declared “a crisis of retention and care.” In related news, healthcare workers count as an overriding reason why union membership in Minnesota (which includes the SEIU’s newly acquired Planned Parenthood workers) currently sits at a 14-year high.

  • SEIU locals continue to advance in their ongoing tactics upon nursing homes. In Pennsylvania, union workers at 39 nursing homes are threatening to strike due to staff cuts and stressful working conditions. And in Connecticut, 25 nursing homes may soon cope with striking workers as they push for increased wages while also asking for the state to intervene with mandated pay raises.

In healthcare union news that is not directly related to strikes, the City of Los Angeles intends to enact a Healthcare Workers Minimum Wage Ordinance, which will bump up private healthcare workers to $25 per hour (or more). This move follows the SEIU’s push to make the issue a ballot initiative, which the Los Angeles City Council decided was not necessary to implement the increases citywide. Stay tuned for potential follow-up developments, not only in California but far and wide.

LRIrightnow 2022 Midyear Election Review is available!

It contains valuable and interesting information detailing NLRB elections held in the first half of this year, including:


  • Data on both Representation and Decertification elections

  • What unions were most active

  • What NLRB regions had the most elections

  • Election breakdowns by state, industry, and unit size

Here’s the link to get your copy: Purchase Here

Links

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Union Bailout

 

Unions' Post-Reconciliation PRO Act Push

https://lri.link/3zYWxc3

 

NLRB Signals New Push For Consequential Damages Is Intended To Make Employers Whole, Too

https://lri.link/3bOAYD7

 

Labor Board Can Award Legal Costs From Bargaining, 9th Cir. Says

https://lri.link/3PmfrPN

 

Biden's Labor Department Is Helping Unions Harm Small Businesses https://lri.link/3JS2VGJ

 

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Union Corruption

 

U.S. Appeals Court Rejects GM Racketeering Suit Against Fiat Chrysler

https://lri.link/3PvjNEs

 

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Organizing

 

Labor Unions Are Hot, But Their Moment May Not Last

https://lri.link/3Pgz5g4

 

The Times They Are A-Changing (A Union Perspective On Flex Workers For Grocery Stores)

https://lri.link/3QJiuCQ

 

Starbucks Asks For A Nationwide Pause In Mail-In Union Votes, Alleging Misconduct

https://lri.link/3bSdhtG

 

Starbucks Walkout Over Firing Of Union Organizer Racks Up 20 million Views On TikTok

https://lri.link/3QrTLTA

 

Starbucks Has Faced Union Strikes In 17 States Amid Wage Dispute

https://lri.link/3w2CTL4

 

Starbucks Says NLRB Officials Aided Union Effort In Elections

https://lri.link/3bUeAs3

 

Starbucks Workers At Boston University Have Been On Strike For A Month

https://lri.link/3Kf6iaZ

 

A Second Trader Joe’s Just Unionized. It Could Be The Next Starbucks.

https://lri.link/3pnFStI

 

Amazon Labor Union Suspends Unionizing Efforts In New York At Three Warehouses Near JFK8

https://lri.link/3AmrA2T

 

Amazon Workers Walk Off Job At Major West Coast Air Hub

https://lri.link/3pjOX71

 

The Organized Labor Movement Has A New Ally: Venture Capitalists

https://lri.link/3A0HQp3

 

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Manufacturing

 

Autoworkers Write To UAW Presidential Candidate Will Lehman, And Lehman Responds

https://lri.link/3w4am86

 

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Aviation

 

American Airlines Flight Attendants Just Made A Big Complaint

https://lri.link/3AqhIVG

 

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.


If you use content from this newsletter please attribute it to Labor Relations Institute and include our website: http://www.LRIonline.com 


Contributing editors for this issue: Phillip Wilson, Greg Kittinger, 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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