On the picket line
Nurses organize
National Nurses United reported the nurses at Maine Medical Center successfully voted to unionize. The 2,000 nurses will be represented by Maine State Nurses Association (MSNU) and NNU. Maine Medical Center is the largest health care facility in the state.
Meanwhile, St. Vincent nurses in Worcester, Mass., are still on the picket line. The nurses’ strike began March 8 and is presently the longest strike in the country. The top demand of the nurses is safer staffing.
The current staffing ratio at St. Vincent is often 1 nurse to 5 patients or (1-5). The patient load is above the NNU recommended staffing ratio and would be deemed unsafe by current best practice standards. For example, a nurse should only be caring for one critical care patient (1-1), while a nurse can be assigned multiple patients who are less acutely ill.
The PRO Act would reshape the tech industry will it get the chance?
A pivotal piece of union legislation is stuck in the Senate
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The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) is holding a hearing this week to contest the results of the Amazon union election. Organizers say the retail giant interrogated employees, spread anti-union propaganda, and held captive audience meetings.
These tactics might seem dirty, but most aren’t explicitly illegal. “According to the letter of the law, workers have the right to organize, but it doesn’t pan out that way in practice,” says Kelly Russo, an organizer with the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) Local 2. “Labor laws are weak or have loopholes that allow employers to dissuade people from forming a union.”
Allina workers reach tentative agreement days before strike deadline
The agreement includes a 5% pay increase, along with workplace safety improvements.
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Essential workers with SEIU Healthcare Minnesota have reached a contract agreement with Allina Health after threatening a strike.
The SEIU bargaining team, which represents 4,000 healthcare workers across the Allina system, announced Wednesday that it had reached tentative agreement with Allina.
Earlier this week, the union said the two parties still remained “deeply divided.” An Unfair Labor Practice strike was scheduled to begin Monday if an agreement was not met.
While the union previously said Allina was offering workers zero pay increase, the tentative agreement now includes a 5% increase over three years, including 3% in the first year.
Undergraduate student workers at Kenyon College are continuing a strike this week and putting more pressure on administrators to voluntarily recognize their union.
Talks break off in strike by 1,300 steelworkers against Allegheny Technologies wsws.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from wsws.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.