CNA: California Nurses Association
General Labor News
Houston Organization of Public Employees
IBEW: International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
IBT: International Brotherhood of Teamsters
ILA: International Longshoremen's Association
MNA: Massachusetts Nurses Association
NYSNA: New York State Nurses Association
SEIU: Service Employees International Union
UAW: United Auto Workers
UFCW: United Food and Commercial Workers
United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America
USWA: United Steelworkers of America
CNA: California Nurses Association
Sutter Health's 2006 profit soars 33% to $587M
(04/13/2007) - MSN Money - (bizjournals.com)
[Sacramento, CA]
Sutter Health, which has faced tough criticism from some quarters in recent years for high prices, high profits and insufficient
charity care, announced extremely healthy 2006 financial results on Friday, including a nearly 33 percent jump in net income to $587 million.
Nurses Campaign For Health Care Reform
(04/13/2007) - ABC7/KGO - (ABC7)
[Leslie Brinkley]
Though as much as 50 percent of them could afford it, seven million Californians don't have health insurance. Now, the
California Nurses Association is mounting a campaign to back a Senate bill to create a single payer plan in the state. The California Nurses
Association is e-mailing out real testimonials -- cases of people who are insured, but the companies either cap off or restrict their coverage when
serious illness hits, or denies coverage to one man because he once had skin cancer.
General Labor News
A shot in the arm for Az's nurse shortage
(04/16/2007) - Tucson Citizen - (La Monica Everett-Haynes)
[Tucson, AZ]
So how can Arizona - with one of the lowest rates of employed registered nurses per capita - quickly train highly qualified
applicants at a low cost to students? The Hospital Council of Southern Arizona found one answer. The council created a nine-hospital consortium that
paired with Grand Canyon University, a private, Phoenix-based Christian school, to sponsor students in Tucson.
Houston Organization of Public Employees
Going beyond money, benefits
(04/10/2007) - Houston Chronicle - (L.M. Sixel)
[Houston, TX]
When 5,300 Houston janitors went on strike last fall, they were seeking a raise to $8.50 an hour, paid family health
insurance and full-time work. But city of Houston employees, who'll begin contract negotiations today, haven't been as focused on pay and
benefits.
IBEW: International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
Losing Paychecks to Union Officials (OPINION)
(04/06/2007) - New York Sun - (Diana Furchtgott-Roth)
[New York, NY]
When the Senate reconvenes after its recess, Verizon Business employees in New York and Massachusetts will be closely
watching Senator Kennedy's Employee Free Choice Act, a bill to prohibit private ballots for workers considering joining unions. That's because a
majority of a group of skilled workers at Verizon Business, formerly MCI, have allegedly signed cards — a process known as "card check" — indicating
that they wish to join the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
IBT: International Brotherhood of Teamsters
Some FedEx Drivers Could Join Union, NLRB Says
(04/14/2007) - Hartford Courant - (Janice Podsada)
[Bloomfield, CT]
The National Labor Relations Board in Hartford ruled this week that some FedEx Home Delivery drivers should be
considered employees and not independent contractors, a decision that gives those drivers the right to vote for union representation.
ILA: International Longshoremen's Association
Chief of Struggling Union Among Highest Paid (SUBSCRIPTION REQ'D)
(04/07/2007) - New York Times - (Steven Greenhouse and William K. Rashbaum)
[New York, NY]
The union representing East Coast dockworkers has been hemorrhaging assets and members in the past two years,
according to a new financial report. Yet the union's president was paid twice as much as several labor leaders who head unions more than 30 times
larger. The union, the International Longshoremen's Association, paid its president, John Bowers, $587,078 last year, according to the annual report
that the union submitted to the federal government late last month. That made him one of the nation's highest-paid union officials. Mr. Bowers's son
John Jr., a union vice president, was paid $292,440 last year, the report said.
MNA: Massachusetts Nurses Association
Analyses diverge on hospital income
(04/09/2007) - The Republican - (Michael McAuliffe)
[Boston, MA]
While the Massachusetts Hospital Association has announced growth in expenses exceeded growth in revenues at
hospitals across the state last year, the accounting by the state shows hospital profits in the Bay State topped $1 billion for the fiscal year that ended
Sept. 30.
NYSNA: New York State Nurses Association
Hospital and Striking Nurses Face Off Over 12-Hour Shifts
(04/09/2007) - New York Times - (Steven Greenhouse)
[New York, NY]
The strike by the New York State Nurses Association has not only created turmoil within the hospital, but has also created
friction with residents of Borough Park, who have often grumbled about the uneven quality of service at Maimonides. To quiet community fears and keep
the hospital running, Maimonides has brought in 350 replacement nurses from around the country -- at a price of about $1 million a week. Whenever
those nurses enter or leave the brown-brick hospital, they hear thunderous cries of ''scab'' from the strikers, who are herded behind police
barriers.
SEIU: Service Employees International Union
Hospitals, nurses join in historic task force
(03/30/2007) - Denver Business Journal - (Amy Fletcher)
[Denver, CO]
Colorado could become a national model for hospitals and nurses -- who often are at odds -- working together to improve
patient care. Gov. Bill Ritter planned to sign an executive order March 29 creating a task force that would develop standards and processes to measure
and disclose nursing quality at hospitals throughout the state.
A man Daley should know
(04/05/2007) - Chicago Sun-Times - (Lynn Sweet)
[Chicago, IL]
Mayor Daley's name is missing from the list of big city mayors who Andy Stern knows. And who is Andy Stern? The national
president of the Service Employees International Union. The SEIU is one of the most influential unions in the nation. It is the largest union in Illinois. The
union is flexing its political muscle for the first time in Chicago City Council elections in a drive conceived by Tom Balanoff, the president of the SEIU
Illinois State Council.
Pima County workers join high-profile union
(04/06/2007) - AZCentral - (AP)
[Tucson, AZ]
About 4,500 Pima County employees will be members of the Service Employees International Union in an effort to get better
wages and benefits. More than 1,200 county workers voted by a 17-to-1 margin to join the union on Tuesday and Wednesday. The results, announced
Thursday, caused applause and cheers from labor organizers.
Labor union seeks to include adult foster care providers
(04/12/2007) - Statesman Journal - (Steve Law)
[Salem, OR]
Small-business owners might seem unlikely candidates for joining a union. But Oregon’s largest state-workers union is
making headway trying to unionize adult foster care providers, who offer around-the-clock nursing care in their homes for up to five frail seniors or
disabled people. Service Employees International Union Local 503 is trying to recruit the state’s 2,600 adult foster care providers to join the union. SEIU
also is promoting Senate Bill 858 to legalize unionization of the providers.
UAW: United Auto Workers
St. Vincent Mercy nurses will keep their union ties
(04/14/2007) - Toledo Blade - (Staff)
[Toledo, OH]
Registered nurses at St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center will continue their affiliation with the United Auto Workers following a
three-day vote on whether they would. The nurses were voting in a decertification election overseen by the National Labor Relations Board. Nearly
1,200 RNs make up the unit, and an overwhelming majority voted for the union, said Sue Pratt, chairman of the RN unit of UAW Local 12. She was
unable to provide vote totals.
UFCW: United Food and Commercial Workers
Supermarket unions walk out of talks
(04/04/2007) - BusinessWeek.com - (Alex Veiga)
[Los Angeles, CA]
Union officials representing 65,000 supermarket workers walked away from contract talks Wednesday after three chains
said they would join together and lock out employees at their Southern California stores if any of the chains becomes the target of a strike.
United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America
COTS workers vote against union
(04/05/2007) - Burlington Free Press - (John Briggs)
[Burlington, VT]
Months of public acrimony came to an end Wednesday when workers at the Committee on Temporary Shelter -- the
Burlington nonprofit that gives help to the homeless -- voted against unionization. The 20-17 vote against joining the United Electrical, Radio and
Machine Workers of America was supervised by the National Labor Relations Board's Melanie Melendy, who said workers must wait at least a year
before petitioning the NLRB for a new election.
USWA: United Steelworkers of America
Britain’s new super-union seeks to team up with US counterpart
(04/06/2007) - Times Online - (Christine Buckley)
[London, England, UK]
The new British super-union being formed from a merger of Amicus and the Transport and General Workers’ Union is
preparing for talks with America’s United Steelworkers to create the first international union, The Times has learnt. The move by Unite, which has two
million members, and USW could transform the trade union movement by enabling the two organisations to pool resources, mount joint campaigns
and attempt to improve pay and standards across multinational companies.
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