1,000 W.V. Hospital Workers Strike to "Build Back Better"

[douglas9]

HUNTINGTON, WEST VIRGINIA – In the parking lot outside of Cabell Huntington’s emergency department, workers have gathered in front of a fire bin. Heather Jordan, a middle-aged secretary, approaching retirement age at the hospital, is standing with other workers trying to warm themselves as the temperature drops into the 30s.

It’s a freezing cold Wednesday night on the first day of the strike at Cabell Huntington Hospital, where more than 1,000 workers are participating. For Jordan, who participated in a strike at the hospital in 1998, it’s bringing back a lot of feelings.

“Kind of feels like deja vu,” Jordan says. “It feels very powerful. Just to stand together with my union brothers and sisters.”

Huntington, the largest city in West Virginia, whose population hovers around 47,000, is a city with a proud union history. The Ohio River Valley town is now writing a new chapter in its history as these 1,000 healthcare workers, SEIU 1199 WV/KY/OH members, are on strike at Cabell Huntington Hospital. Three miles down the road, another 500 workers are on strike at Special Metals.

The town has already rallied behind the striking workers, even helping a group of 50 machinists at Sulzer Pump win an improved union contract following a two-week strike at their employer.



https://paydayreport.com/1000-w-v-hospital-workers-strike-to-build-back-better/

[traitorsgalore]

1. Lot's of cancer as well as Covid around there

https://www.propublica.org/article/toxmap-poison-in-the-air

[Maraya1969]

2. ??? Is this to support the Senate Bill? I don't understand

[quaint]

3. From the linked article

On the picket line last night, workers waved SEIU signs reading “Build Back Better.” Initially, unions had printed the signs for rallies to call on Senator Joe Manchin to support the “Build Back Better” reconciliation bill. However, some union members, who weren’t plugged into national politics, discovered the signs and thought they made a catchy slogan.

Workers feel that they deserve to “build back better” together from the collective trauma and pain that many strikers felt when working together in the hospital during the pandemic.

However, unlike other hospitals who used the federal CARES Act to give their workers bonuses and raises, Cabell Huntington Hospital, despite receiving $40 million in federal CARES Act dollars, did not. As a result, many health care workers left the hospital to work at other hospitals in the region where the pay was better. This led healthcare workers to face another understaffing situation.

But workers on the picket line in Huntington are determined to make their hospital better, to “build back better” together as a union. And Wednesday night on the picket line, the mood was electric with horns constantly blaring along Hal Greer Boulevard as workers screamed and waved their signs.

[usaf-vet]

7. I agree I'm not sure either. I appears to me they like the Biden "Build Back Better".....

.... title so they co-opted it for their strike.

On the picket line last night, workers waved SEIU signs reading “Build Back Better.” Initially, unions had printed the signs for rallies to call on Senator Joe Manchin to support the “Build Back Better” reconciliation bill. However, some union members, who weren’t plugged into national politics, discovered the signs and thought they made a catchy slogan.

Workers feel that they deserve to “build back better” together from the collective trauma and pain that many strikers felt when working together in the hospital during the pandemic.

Right?

[Bernardo de La Paz]

4. Don't excerpt first 4 paras. Excerpt the KEY paragraphs, to support your HEADLINE

Your headline attracts viewers to your thread. If you want to do clickbait advertising for payreport.com do what you did.

Otherwise, ... deliver on your headline.

Are they protesting Joe Manchin?

[Escurumbele]

5. Thank you, that was my question as well, and I am sure anyone who reads the headline

[Wednesdays]

6. The kicker is, the link between the headline and Manchin is tenuous

Quote:

On the picket line last night, workers waved SEIU signs reading “Build Back Better.” Initially, unions had printed the signs for rallies to call on Senator Joe Manchin to support the “Build Back Better” reconciliation bill. However, some union members, who weren’t plugged into national politics, discovered the signs and thought they made a catchy slogan.

Workers feel that they deserve to “build back better” together from the collective trauma and pain that many strikers felt when working together in the hospital during the pandemic.

[marybourg]

9. Thank you for bringing up this point

[mountain grammy]

8. Thank you for posting this..

gets zero coverage on national media.. keep em coming..

They're sending a message to Joe Manchin.

[liberalla]

10. Off point, but I'm stunned that the largest city in WV is only 47,000 !! ?

Otherwise I support the strike, and hope more people/unions join in!

[Staph]

11. That's my hospital, where I get immunotherapy.

I'm 100% behind the strikers, even though this is delaying a lymph node biopsy for me.