Healthcare Workers Strike Over Hospital Contracts, Staffing Issues

Healthcare workers across the country are striking and protesting over contracts, according to various reports.

Advertisement

Eight-hundred workers at Cabell Huntington (W.V.) Hospital are considering a strike following the expiration of their contract. The workers include licensed practical nurses, lab workers and service and maintenance personnel, according to the Bloomberg Businessweek report. Healthcare, wages and pensions are issued in contract negotiations between the union and hospital.

Nurses, pharmacists, social workers and other union-represented healthcare workers at Sparrow Hospitals in Lansing, Mich., will decide later this week whether to accept a new labor contract or authorize a strike. The Michigan Nurses Association will meet with its members to discuss the hospital’s proposed contract, which may include cuts to retirement and benefit packages.

Nurses at Watsonville (Calif.) Community Hospital, meanwhile, are heading back to work Friday without a contract. The nurses say the issue is not money, but staffing at patient care, according to the Mercury News report.

A staffing issue also prompted National Nurses United, the largest nurses union in the country, to ask Washington D.C.’s health department to investigate understaffing at Washington Hospital Center, according to a Washington Post report.

Read the Bloomberg Businessweek report on Cabell Huntington Hospital.

Read the Mercury News report on Watsonville Community Hospital.

Read the Washington Post report on National Nurses United.

Read the Lansing State Journal report on Sparrow Hospitals.

At Becker's 4th Annual CEO + CFO Roundtable, taking place November 2–5 in Chicago, more than 1,500 hospital and health system executives tackle decisions that determine whether organizations thrive or merely survive: protecting margins under cost pressure, choosing where to grow, renegotiating payer relationships, stabilizing the workforce and proving real ROI on technology. This is where leaders work through them together, face-to-face. Apply for complimentary registration now.

Advertisement

Next Up in Leadership & Management

Advertisement

Comments are closed.