Staffing

Are Railroads Slowly Committing Suicide?

October 29, 2024 David Sparkman, Material Handling and Logistics. Educate! Privatization, Public Rail, Railroads, Staffing

North America’s remaining six major freight railroads appear to be committing slow motion suicide, according to testimony offered by rail customers, industry analysts and labor to regulators on the Surface Transportation Board (STB) at two days of public hearings held last month. STB Chairman Robert E. Primus contended that the industry’s growth has not measured up to all of the opportunities that were presented to it over the past seven years, after Wall Street activist investors ignited the fad of Precision Scheduled Railroading (PSR), an operations model sold to investors as a Holy Grail by prioritizing squeezing out costs over growing the business, and which has persisted since gaining widespread acceptance among investors in 2017.

Nurses Weather Long Lockout And Win Staffing Ratio Language

October 29, 2024 Nurse Erica, Labor Notes. Resist! Hawaiʻi, Health Care, Honolulu, Nurses, Staffing, Strikes, Victory

In a malicious ploy, a hospital in Honolulu locked out its nurses after a one-day strike—and not just for a couple days, as hospitals often do, but indefinitely. The message was, you can come back only when you accept our demands. But the nurses stuck it out. They kept building their support with daily demonstrations. And in the end, amid public outrage after elders got arrested in a solidarity protest, management agreed to nurse-to-patient ratio language, a first for the state. The 630 nurses at Kapi’olani Medical Center for Women and Children struck on September 13 over unfair labor practices—specifically, ongoing retaliation against nurses who report unsafe staffing conditions, as documented by their union, the Hawaii Nurses Association.

On Nurses Day, Struggles Continue For Better Conditions

May 13, 2024 People's Health Dispatch, People's Dispatch. Resist! Health Care, International Nurses’ Day, Staffing, Worker Rights and Jobs

International Nurses’ Day greetings are just around the corner, as governments and officials prepare once again to recognize the contribution of the largest group in the health workforce to health systems worldwide. Yet, as Public Services International (PSI) warns, nurses across the globe are still waiting to see action on the promises made by ministers and other policymakers. Despite commitments made during the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been no notable improvement in workers’ rights and working conditions in public health systems. Today, there is a global shortage of six million nurses, with almost 90% of this shortage concentrated in low- and middle-income countries.

To Fix Short-Staffing, Raise Wages, PeaceHealth Strikers Say

October 24, 2023 Jonathon Baker, Labor Notes. Resist! Health Care, Healthcare workers, Staffing, Strikes, Wages, Washington State

One of the largest non-nurse health care strikes in Pacific Northwest history began at 6:30 a.m. this morning, shedding light on skilled workers who often get overlooked. We’re demanding that PeaceHealth, a Jesuit-run health system, raise wages and fix critically short staffing—two issues that are closely related. The strikers are 1,300 workers at two hospitals in southwest Washington: PeaceHealth Southwest in Vancouver, and PeaceHealth St. John in nearby Longview. The strike will last five days; workers will return to work October 28. PeaceHealth had announced that it would cut off health insurance if the strike continued into November.

New Jersey Nurses Two Months Into Strike For Safe Staffing

October 7, 2023 Sudip Bhattacharya, Labor Notes. Resist! Health Care, New Jersey (NJ), Staffing, Strikes, Worker Rights and Jobs

There ought to be nine nurses on the day shift at 9 Tower, a trauma surgery unit inside the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Instead, some days there are just three. “Sometimes I’d look at a patient’s face and know that I won’t be able to maybe help feed them when they need to be fed,” said nurse Sophia Moccio, “or clean them when they need to be cleaned. It is distressing, and depressing for us.” Staffing levels this bad are a major reason why she and 1,700 of her co-workers at RWJUH have been on strike since August 4. Nurses in her 34-bed unit often have to manage the care of six patients apiece—and sometimes seven or eight.

Biggest Health Worker Strike In United States History Begins

October 4, 2023 People's Dispatch. Resist! California, Colorado, Healthcare workers, Kaiser Permanente, Oregon, Staffing, Strikes, Virginia, Washington, Washington D.C., Worker Rights and Jobs

On October 4, 75,000 healthcare workers at Kaiser Permanente facilities in several US states are set to go on strike for three days following the breakdown of contract negotiations last week. A coalition of several unions representing health workers in California, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, Virginia, and Washington, DC is battling the nonprofit health giant for safe staffing levels, cost of living pay increases, and against a two-tier pay system that Kaiser is trying to introduce. The largest union in the coalition is Service Employees International Union (SEIU)-United Healthcare Workers West (UHW) with 57,443 members, but the coalition also includes Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) Local 30, SEIU Local 49, OPEIU Local 2 and others.

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