Healthcare Workers Are Organizing Like Their Lives Depend On It
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In These Times) Registered nurse Sandra Old field died of Covid-19 in May. Since March, she and fellow nurses had been sounding the pandemic alarm about dangerous conditions at the Kaiser Permanente Fresno Medical Center, the California hospital where she worked for nearly 20 years.
After California declared a Covid-19 state of emergency on March 4, Oldfield didnt feel safe working in just the surgical mask issued to her by the hospital. She joined co-workers who complained to management, demanding access to N95 respirators.
That same month, one of Oldfields patients, initially admitted with gastrointestinal symptoms, became acutely ill with a respiratory infection and tested positive for Covid-19. Oldfield went home to isolate March 26. Within two months, Oldfield, 53, was dead.
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While traditional unionization has slowed in 2020, including in the healthcare sector, there are indicators of growing interest in organizing within hospitals, nursing homes and other frontline healthcare facilities. Thousands of workers have gone on strike. And while its difficult to estimate how many workers have taken part in smaller on-the-job protests and pickets, healthcare workers are filing more NLRB complaints alleging retaliation for workplace organizing than in previous years.Meanwhile, several healthcare unions report they are making inroads with non-union workers. They especially see potential to improve the ratio of patients to staff, which has steadily deteriorated in the context of consolidated corporate healthcare systems.Our phones are ringing in a way they havent in the past, says Matthew Yarnell, president of SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania, which represents healthcare workers at three new facilities following successful union drives during the pandemic. Virtually every facility shares the same core issues, Yarnell says: chronic short staffing, low wages, not being prepared for a highly contagious airborne pandemic virus. The tragic situation has become a crucible for enhanced workplace action and organizing. ............(more)
https://inthesetimes.com/article/healthcare-workers-labor-unions-national-nurses-united-nurses-united-ppe-shortages