Hundreds of nurses picketed Aug. 20 to call attention to ongoing contract disputes with Essentia Health and St. Luke's in Duluth, Minn., according to The Duluth News Tribune.

More than 1,300 registered nurses from Dignity Health hospitals in Southern California plan to strike for 10 days beginning Aug. 30, unless a contract agreement is reached, according to the union that represents them.

The operator of Our Lady of Fatima Hospital in North Providence, R.I., has reached contracts with employees that include a provision for panic buttons, according to The Breeze.

Kaiser Permanente workers in California have voted to empower their bargaining team to call a nationwide strike that would affect more than 80,000 employees at Kaiser facilities, according to the unions that represent them.

Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente said it has offered a contract proposal to the unions representing more than 80,000 Kaiser employees.

Dignity Health nurses in Southern California have launched a series of protests about what they say are unsafe conditions at three facilities, according to the union that represents them.

Becker's Hospital Review reported the following hospital-union events in July.

Eureka, Calif.-based St. Joseph Hospital nurses called for changes in contract language to address multiple instances of workplace violence at the facility, according to The Times-Standard.

Union leaders allege that Kaiser Permanente closed hospital cafeterias in California to interfere with workers voting on whether to empower their bargaining team to call a nationwide strike.

Kaiser Permanente workers will begin voting July 29 on whether to empower their bargaining team to call a nationwide strike that would affect more than 80,000 employees at Kaiser facilities, according to CBS San Francisco.

Nurses and other healthcare workers will participate in a rally July 26 to urge Renton, Wash.-based Providence St. Joseph Health to put "patients before profits," the unions representing them announced.

An unfair labor practice charge against the Michigan Nurses Association at Royal Oak, Mich.-based Beaumont Hospital has been withdrawn.

Nurses at the University of Chicago Medical Center will be holding an informational picket and rally July 22, according to a July 18 announcement from National Nurses United Organizing Committee/National Nurses United.

Becker's Hospital Review reported the following hospital-union events after July 9.

Boston Medical Center and its nurses have settled on a labor deal, according to The Boston Globe.

Nurses at Mountain View, Calif.-based El Camino Hospital authorized a strike July 16 amid contract negotiations, according to the Mountain View Voice.

A majority of nurses and other employees voted to unionize in a two-day election July 11-12 at three medical facilities in the Kalispell Regional Healthcare system, according to The Daily Inter Lake.

More than 80,000 healthcare workers at facilities owned by Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente are preparing to vote in July and August on whether to authorize their bargaining team to call a strike, according to the unions that represent them.

Some nurses filed an unfair labor charge July 9 against Royal Oak, Mich.-based Beaumont Hospital for allegedly interfering with workers' efforts to unionize, according to The Detroit News.

In a recent interview, Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he has "to look into" a pension dispute involving Schenectady, N.Y.-based St. Clare's Hospital, according to the Albany Times Union.