Hospital workers launch protests for higher wages, say they can't afford health care

The Hill ^ | 02 18 2020 | Tal Axelrod

[yesthatjallen]

Hospital and health care workers are launching union drives and protests across the country to demand higher wages and improved working conditions.

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) chapter covering Illinois, Indiana, Missouri and Kansas told The Guardian that it is putting together a campaign to organize workers advocating to extend a $15 minimum wage beyond Chicago.

The group said there are roughly 50,000 low-wage hospital workers in the Chicago metropolitan area, with about 10,000 of those workers represented by the union.

“We’re trying to make sure every hospital worker across the city has a voice when it comes to making decisions in the workplace,” LeChrisha Pearson, a certified nursing assistant at Chicago’s Mount Sinai hospital, told The Guardian. “It’s just starting, but it’s a campaign that needs to expand throughout the healthcare system as a whole.”

Four unionized hospitals in the Chicago area will take part in the protest, advocating for new union contracts to address issues such as low pay, poor working conditions, unaffordable health care(?) and inequities in hospital funding.

“We work in the healthcare field, but we can’t afford the healthcare ourselves. It’s ridiculous. When we look at the staffing issues, they can work us, knowing we’re short-staffed, but they don’t care,” said Kimberly Smith, a patient care technician at Northwestern Memorial hospital.

SNIP

[yesthatjallen]

Can't they sign-up for ObamaCare?

[Secret Agent Man]

i cant either. join the club. 10-11k a year in premiums, for no drug or procedure, then 5-6k out of pocket and then a percentage is covered. can’t get sick.

[farming pharmer]

And yet the head of Ascension makes 15+ million dollars a year.

[DoughtyOne]

L o O K . F O R . T H E . U N I O N . L A B E L

[AnthonySoprano]

‘
Barack Hussein Obama, Mmm, mmm, mmm

‘
Barack Hussein Obama, Mmm, mmm, mmm

He bought 50 acres in the Vine-yard, didn’t care if we starved.

Barack Hussein Obama.

[Moonmad27]

SEIU higher-ups are thugs - I hated dealing with them on the left coast for ten years.

[LittleBillyInfidel]

Let me get this straight... You workers can’t afford your own services, so you want to raise the costs of those same services. Got it. Well, you’d better suck it up if Bernie wins, cuz he says the rest of the world has a RIGHT to your services.