New Hyde Park, N.Y.-based Northwell Health said its affiliated, direct-to-employer company, Northwell Direct, will provide New York Police Department officers with mental health services including free, confidential counseling.

Members of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Local 829 began an open-ended strike July 18 at Sequoia Hospital in Redwood City, Calif.

Nurses at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland, Ore., approved a new two-year agreement with their employer, ending a looming strike threat, according to hospital and union statements shared with Becker's. 

Registered nurses at San Jose Regional Medical Center and Good Samaritan Hospital, who are represented by the California Nurses Association, have approved a three-year labor deal.

Nurses at Providence Regional Medical Center Everett (Wash.) have asked the City Council to support them as they seek hazard pay and to remedy staffing challenges at the facility, The Everett Herald reported July 15. 

Nurses at Rochester (N.Y.) General Hospital voted for representation by Rochester Union of Nurses and Allied Professionals, the hospital confirmed in a July 14 statement shared with Becker's. 

Nursing staff at the University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington, who are represented by the Vermont Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals, approved a new two-year contract with their employer, according to a July 11 news release. 

Claxton-Hepburn Medical Center in Ogdensburg, N.Y., failed to properly train the 41 workers being laid off as it outsources revenue cycle functions, CBS affiliate WWNY reports.

Nurses at the Mayo Clinic Health System in Mankato, Minn., are scheduled to vote this month on whether to remove the Minnesota Nurses Association as their bargaining representative. 

Nurses at Providence Willamette Falls Medical Center in Oregon City, Ore., have approved a new two-year agreement with their employer, ending a looming strike threat, according to hospital and union statements shared with Becker's.

Registered nurses at University of California facilties, who are represented by the California Nurses Association, have approved a new three-year contract.

Members of the Service Employees International Union Local 521 are set to begin a three-day strike July 26 at Kern Medical in Bakersfield, Calif.

Buffalo, N.Y.-based Kaleida Health and its two largest unions will have more time to negotiate a new contract after the parties agreed to a second extension of their existing master bargaining agreement, according to a June 30 news release.

Members of the Massachusetts Nurses Association have approved a three-year contract with Taunton-based Steward Morton Hospital.

Nurses at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland, Ore., and Providence Willamette Falls Medical Center in Oregon City, Ore., have reached tentative agreements with their employers, according to the union that represents them.

Seattle Children's Hospital is facing pressure from the Washington State Nurses Association to pay its staff nurses more instead of paying travel nurse wages and offering hiring bonuses.  

Workers at Lincoln City, Ore.-based Samaritan North Lincoln Hospital, who are members of SEIU Local 49, voted to approve a new contract with pay raises.

Nurses at the Mayo Clinic Health System in Mankato, Minn., have signed a decertification petition seeking a vote on the removal of the Minnesota Nurses Association as their bargaining representative.

Close to 90 percent of healthcare facilities used locum tenens physicians and/or advanced practice professionals to fill gaps in their staffs last year, according to a new survey from AMN Healthcare. 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, hospital and health system employees have increasingly voiced their concerns about staffing, patient care, working conditions and employee retention. A number of workers have also left their full-time hospital jobs — or their professions altogether — amid these and other concerns.