A Flashpoint for Union Rights and Health Care
As working-class people around the country brace for more budget cuts that, among other things, will further restrict their access to health care, the people providing that care have also been feeling the wrath of austerity – and its attendant national offensive against unions.
Subterranean Dispatches
Children’s Hospital Nurse Strike Continues
Registered nurses today will mark the second day of a five-day strike at Children’s Hospital Oakland (CHO) with continued picketing and a noon rally where patients and community members will speak in support of the nurses fight to keep their decades long health plan that enables them to have their children cared for at the hospital.
Press Release
May 6, 2011
Centinela Hospital, Inglewood RNs to picket Friday
Registered nurses will picket Centinela Hospital Center and hold a noon rally Friday to protest what they call a systematic campaign by Prime Healthcare to sharply erode care standards and force the elimination of experienced nurses at the hospital at the expense of patient safety.
Press Release
May 5, 2011
Nurses at EMMC Ratify Contract
In one of closest votes in its history, Nurses represented by the Maine State Nurses Association/National Nurses United ratified a one-year agreement with EMMC late Tuesday evening. Nurses at EMMC have been in bargaining since August 2010, and had to strike EMMC in November to demonstrate their commitment to safe patient care. The three major points of contention were staffing, job security and health benefits.
Press Release
May 4, 2011
Tentative Pact for RNs at Washington Hospital Center
Registered nurses at Washington Hospital Center, the District of Columbia’s largest mediccenter, reached a tentative agreement Tuesday night on a new collective bargaining contract with the hospital, National Nurses United, which represents the 1,700 WHC RNs announced today
Press Release
May 4, 2011
Small Press with Big Ideas
Among the vast daily news sources bidding for our readership, I find four little-heralded publications representing major causes worthy of attention.
In The Public Interest
Plan to close Oak Forest Hospital draws more criticism
Assertions by Cook County officials that Oak Forest Hospital patients will be adequately cared for if the hospital closes were called into question Monday at a public hearing on the planned closure at Oak Forest City Hall.
Southtown Star/Chicago Suntimes
Children’s Hospital Oakland RNs Preparing for Five-Day Strike
OAKLAND— Registered nurses from Children’s Hospital Oakland, preparing to go on strike May 5-10 over sharply reduced healthcare coverage for nurses and their families, will be making picket signs on Wednesday, May 4 and are available to the media for interviews during that time.
Press Release
May 3, 2011
Snyder is 'strangling democracy,' participants at pre-graduation rally in Ann Arbor say
Fifth grader Lexie Salazar told a rally of protesters this morning in Ann Arbor she’s afraid Gov. Rick Snyder’s budget cuts will make it harder for her to become a zoologist.
AnnArbor.com
Overtime goes overboard at Cook County hospitals
Staff shortages and management woes at Cook County hospitals are pushing overtime to extraordinary levels, imposing huge costs on taxpayers and raising concerns about patient safety.
Crain's Chicago