At a pre-march labor rally, Christina Marie Sabio Hilo of New York State Nurses Association fired up the crowd: “I’m not only a nurse, I’m a mother. Children are being murdered in Gaza. And they want you to believe these sham elections are the real story, while children are dying!”
Photo by redguard
struggle-la-lucha.org
By Jake Johnson
Tens of thousands of nurses across Britain walked off the job Thursday in what’s been described as the largest-ever strike by National Health Service workers, who said they were forced to act after the government refused to negotiate over pay amid painfully high inflation.
The walkout represents NHS nurses’ first national strike, and it comes as British rail and postal workers are also taking major labor actions in response to falling real pay, meager benefits, and worsening conditions.
nationalnursesunited.org
RNs understand that abortion is a basic health care service, and as a union of health care providers dedicated to advocating for the best interests of our patients, NNU opposes any efforts to restrict our patients’ control and choices over their own health care and their own bodies.
By National Nurses United
We believe overturning Roe is only a first step: Reversing an almost half-century old health care right opens the door for the extremist Supreme Court and the authoritarian right to attack numerous other liberties that many take for granted, such as the right to contraception, interracial marriage, and LGBTQ+ rights. These assaults on basic human rights hurt all working people.
struggle-la-lucha.org
By Andre Powell
Washington, D.C. - The District of Columbia Nurses Association staged a one-day strike to highlight the failure of Adventist Healthcare to sit down and bargain in good faith. Adventist Healthcare is the administration for Howard University Hospital. The day-long rally ran from 7:30 a.m. until 8 p.m. on April 11. The nurses that attended represented many different nationalities. For the morning rally over 200 participants were in attendance.
struggle-la-lucha.org
By Stephen Millies
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. declared that “of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.” The COVID-19 pandemic is more proof Dr. King was right. Death rates from the virus are at least double in Black, Indigenous and Latinx communities.
A coalition of major labor unions petitioned an appeals court on Wednesday to force the Biden administration to make permanent its emergency temporary standard for healthcare workers during the pandemic.
struggle-la-lucha.org
By Stephen Millies
The U.S. working class is waking up angry and defiant. More than 100,000 workers are on strike from coast to coast. Here are some of the biggest battles that broke out during “Striketober.”
struggle-la-lucha.org
By Stephen Millies
Wall Street’s war machine includes 11 aircraft carriers and 5,800 nuclear weapons. Yet the capitalist government in the United States is helpless to combat the latest coronavirus surge.
Daily cases have soared to 180,000 with over a thousand deaths per day. Hospitals throughout the Midwest are being overwhelmed. New York City is close to closing its public schools again.
None of this was inevitable. Donald Trump has blood on his hands. By sabotaging absolutely necessary public health measures — like wearing masks and practicing social distancing — Trump guaranteed thousands of more deaths.
The Trump regime follows decades of cutbacks and privatizing government programs. Hundreds of hospitals have closed with tens of thousands of hospital beds lost. Now they’re needed.
fightbacknews.org
By Joe Iosbaker
Chicago, IL -The largest strike since the economic crisis hit came to an end at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), September 24. Last night and this morning, tentative agreements were announced for the 4000 members of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 73, and the 1300 members of the Illinois Nurses Association (INA).
The nurses struck for seven days starting Saturday, September 12. SEIU members started on Monday, September 14 and stayed on the picket lines for ten days.
For both unions, safety for workers and patients was a priority, after four employees and one spouse died of COVID-19 because management failed to keep workers safe this spring. In all, 300 employees at UIC have contracted the virus. At least eight were on respirators and three suffered strokes.
INA won staffing levels, a key demand for them, with the agreement by the employer to hire 160 more nurses. For Local 73, according to President Dian Palmer, the wage agreement has increases of 2%, 1%, 1.5% and 1.5% for the four years of the contract. In addition, hundreds of the lowest-paid workers will have wages increased to $15 per hour. Wages for newly-hired food service workers had been less than $11 per hour, and the starting wage for building service workers were less than $13 per hour. Some food service workers employed for ten years still did not earn $15.
struggle-la-lucha.org
By Joe Iosbaker
The strike of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 73 and the Illinois Nurses Association (INA) at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) shows no sign of ending. Starting when the INA, representing 1,300 nurses, walked out Saturday, Sept. 12, the strike ballooned to 5,300 on Monday, Sept. 14, when Local 73 put down their brooms, keyboards and medical equipment to hit the picket lines.
Like the rebellion in the streets against police crimes, this strike is on the offense. SEIU strikers are not just trying to hold on to past gains, but instead demanding significant wage increases, and the nurses are demanding staffing levels like they have in California.