More than 1,200 Waterloo Region workers take step closer to strike

By Waterloo Region Record
Wed., June 30, 2021

WATERLOO REGION — After more than a year of talks, more than 1,200 unionized workers at the Region of Waterloo are closer to a strike.

The workers, represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees locals 5191 and 1883, are requesting what is known as a no-board report, which can take a few days to be issued. Once that happens, workers would be in a legal strike position 17 days later.

The workers include 300 paramedics and logistics staff, and more than 900 inside workers in public health, child care, social services, finance, IT, housing, administration, museums, libraries, bylaw enforcement, engineering, airport, landfill and transportation.

Negotiations have stalled after more than a year of “unproductive” talks, the union says in a news release.

Noelle Fletcher, president of CUPE 1883, said her members are concerned about job security, lack of investment in mental health and possible layoffs as the region continues to cut services.

“Paramedics are burnt out,” said Luke McCann, president of paramedics local.

NHS pay: England senior doctors could take industrial action over 1% rise

By Hugh Pym
Health editor
BBC
Published 2 days ago


Senior doctors in England will be consulted on taking industrial action if the government's 1% pay rise offer is not improved.


The British Medical Association says it will ask members about stopping paid and unpaid overtime if there is not a figure nearer 4%.


The Royal College of Nursing has already said it will consider balloting over industrial action.


It has called for a 12.5% pay rise this year.


Pay review bodies covering most NHS workers have made recommendations which have not yet been published.


In England, ministers must decide whether in the light of those reports they will increase their proposed 1% offer.


NHS 1% pay rise is 'as much as we can give' - PM

Hancock defends 1% NHS pay rise after strike threats

Nurses prepare for strikes over 1% NHS pay rise

Industrial action by consultants would involve stopping paid and unpaid overtime, which would affect patient clinics and attempts by hospitals to reduce waiting lists, the BMA says.


It argues that senior doctors are exhausted and feel undervalued because of previous below inflation pay rises.


If industrial action is taken it would be the first by consultants since the 1970s apart from a day of action over pensions in 2012.




Consultant's view: 'I just want fairness'


Mike Henley, a consultant urologist in the East Midlands, says consultants' pay has been steadily eroded compared to other salaries in the public sector.


"I want to get back to fairness. Like everyone, I would rather not stop doing overtime," he says.


"But consultants do incredibly busy and stressful jobs - and we are underpaid compared to lawyers, for example.



"I don't expect to be paid like someone working in the City, but I don't expect to have a third of my pay removed either."


Mr Henley said the pandemic had made his job even more difficult and caring for patients had become more complex.


"For many, its been like wartime medicine," he says.




The Department of Health said the government was committed to a wage rise for NHS staff, including consultants, when pay increases elsewhere in the public sector had been paused.


The health department recommended the 1% pay award to the independent panel that advises the government on NHS salaries. It would cover nearly all hospital staff, but not GPs and dentists.


Nurses have described the proposed pay rise as "insulting", with unions threatening strike action and warning that the "pitiful" rise may lead staff to quit their jobs - worsening staffing issues in the health service.



Talks on pay are underway in Wales where the government has said it will not set a 1% ceiling on pay awards.


In Northern Ireland all NHS staff have been offered a £500 bonus this year. Bonuses have also been offered in Scotland where longer-term pay negotiations are ongoing.



What's the significance?


Consultants, at the top end on NHS salary scales because of their years of medical experience and leadership, have not been minded to get involved in public pay disputes till now.


The possible overtime bans could slow down attempts to reduce hospital waiting lists.


This could be seen as sabre rattling and a bid to sway ministers ahead of their wage announcement.


But it is indicative of the likely level of anger across the NHS workforce if the government response to the pay review bodies' recommendations is not far off the original 1% proposal.


Additional reporting by Ella Wills.

Iran oil workers strike for better wages as economy suffers
By ISABEL DEBRE

June 30, 2021

FILE - In this Nov. 17, 2007 file photo, a worker repairs a part of a unit of the Tehran oil refinery, in Tehran, Iran. Thousands of workers in Iran’s vast energy industry have gone on strike over the past week to press demands for better wages and conditions at oil facilities, Iranian media reported Wednesday, June 30 2021. The strike highlights economic pressures on the country as it struggles to secure relief from crippling sanctions. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)


DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Thousands of workers in Iran’s vast energy industry have gone on strike over the past week to press demands for better wages and conditions at oil facilities, Iranian media reported Wednesday. The widespread demonstrations underscore the mounting economic pressures on the country as it struggles to secure relief from crippling sanctions.

Footage has spread across social media showing construction workers at 60 oil and petrochemical installations, largely in the country’s oil-rich south, walking off their jobs in protest. In some videos, cars honk and crowds of workers cheer as they stream into the dusty roads, the refinery’s hulking white storage tanks receding behind them.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani vowed Wednesday to “solve” oil workers’ grievances and sought to assuage fears over any economic reverberations.

He said the labor demonstrations were mainly limited to private construction workers on temporary contracts at the plants and would not hurt Iran’s oil production. The protests have not yet reached the state-owned National Iranian Oil Company, where some 200,000 workers receive wages three times as high and better protections under Iran’s labor law.

“We do not have and we will not have any problem in the production, transfer, distribution and export of oil,” Rouhani told his weekly Cabinet meeting. “I promise the workers of the oil industry that their problems will be solved.”

The striking workers at remote facilities in the southern desert reaches of the country, where summer temperatures exceed 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit), are pushing for wages on par with their counterparts in the state oil company. They also want 10 days off a month to visit their families in faraway cities. The contractors currently receive some $200 a month, just one day off per week and 2 1/2 vacation days a month.

Iran’s oil sector, the lifeblood of its economy, has been devastated by the impact of American sanctions over Tehran’s nuclear program. Three years ago, then-President Donald Trump pulled America from Tehran’s landmark 2015 atomic accord with world powers and returned sanctions on Iran that have slashed its petrochemical exports and clobbered its economy. Diplomats from parties to the deal have been struggling to resurrect the agreement in Vienna.

With the coronavirus pandemic worsening Iran’s economic woes, inflation has spiraled over 40%, exacting a heavy toll on ordinary laborers. Workers have staged scattered, low-level strikes in various cities and industries over salary, retirement and pension issues in recent months.

There have been no reports of tough action against the strikers by security forces. Human rights groups have nonetheless raised the alarm, citing the country’s dark history of crackdowns on popular unrest.

Iran’s news media, strictly controlled by authorities, has paid little attention to the oil workers’ strikes. Organized labor demonstrations in the oil sector remain politically sensitive in Iran, where in 1978 mass strikes over wages and working conditions in the oil industry severed production and swelled into demands for the overthrow of the pro-Western monarchy before the Islamic Revolution months later.

“The issues facing the oil industry’s workers are the same as those facing all workers in Iran; the authorities should begin addressing their urgent needs,” said Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the Center for Human Rights in Iran, a New York-based advocacy group, warning of potential for “violence against the strikers if these work stoppages continue and grow.”

In the meantime, however, Iranian officials say they’re trying to address workers’ demands.

In an emergency parliamentary committee meeting about the strikes this week, Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said he received backing from lawmakers to remove wage restraints from construction contracts in the oil industry.

The former hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was barred from running again in Iran’s presidential election this month, sent a letter in support of those on strike. Following his disqualification, the well-known populist has sought to rally support by posturing as an anti-establishment figure. Iran’s hard-line judiciary chief, Ebrahim Raisi, won the vote widely seen as tipped in his favor.

“I warn all related authorities and officials,” said Ahmadinejad, whose reelection in a disputed 2009 presidential vote saw security forces suppress Iran’s Green Movement protests with brutal force. “Disregarding the protests of those who have found all usual forms to express their demands blocked will not carry good consequences.”

___

Associated Press writer Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran contributed to this report.

INDIA VIOLATES ILO

Defence service workers barred from strike

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
NEW DELHI, JULY 01, 2021 

This August 17, 2019 photos shows a protest rally in Jabalpur against the Central government over the proposed privatisation of 41 ordnance factories. | Photo Credit: PTI

Ordinance notifies prison term, fines for commencing or inciting strikes declared as illegal.

The Law Ministry late on Wednesday notified an Ordinance that prohibited employees engaged in essential defence services from taking part in any agitation or strike.

The Essential Defence Services Ordinance 2021 comes in the backdrop of major federations affiliated with the 76,000 employees of the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) making an announcement that they would go on indefinite strike from July 26 in protest against the government’s decision to corporatise the OFB.

ALSO READ

CPI seeks withdrawal of ‘draconian’ ordinance that bans strikes in ordnance factories

The notification stated that President Ram Nath Kovind “is satisfied that circumstance exists for the Ordinance as Parliament is not in session”.

“Any person, who commences a strike which is illegal under this Ordinance or goes or remains on, or otherwise takes part in, any such strike, shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to one year or with fine which may extend to ₹10,000 or both,” the Law Ministry notification said.

The notification added that anyone instigating or inciting others to take part in a strike declared illegal under the Ordinance shall also be punishable with imprisonment for a term that may extend up to two years, apart from having to pay fines.

The gazette notification said employees involved in the production of defence equipment, services and operation, or maintenance of any industrial establishment connected with the military, as well as those employed in repair and maintenance of defence products, will come under the purview of the Ordinance.

Following the Cabinet decision, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said there would be no change in the service conditions of employees of the OFB, and the decision was aimed at boosting India’s defence manufacturing sector.

On June 16, the Union Cabinet approved a long-pending proposal to restructure the nearly 200-year-old Ordnance Factory Board — operating 41 ammunition and military equipment production facilities — into seven state-owned corporations to improve its accountability, efficiency and competitiveness.

Massachusetts

Fueling St. Vincent strike: Pandemic, nursing shortage, opinions about corporate health

Cyrus Moulton
Telegram & Gazette



WORCESTER — Aimee Albani said nursing has changed a lot in her 43 years in the field.

She has been kicked, spat on and had to call for help as more and more patients go through withdrawal from alcohol and drugs.

She has dealt with increasing numbers of “armchair physicians” who insist they know how to better do her job and an increasingly litigious society.

And she has witnessed staffing shortages as the gray tsunami crests, experienced corporate cost-cutting, and watched colleagues leave for hospitals with better pay and benefits.

It made Albani consider quitting.

Then came COVID-19.

“I was going to quit if staffing didn’t improve, but then I wasn’t going to quit during COVID, I didn’t want to leave my colleagues,” Albani said Wednesday while on the picket line outside St. Vincent Hospital.

But “COVID was awful,” Albani continued. “(It) just made it worse.”

While the daily back and forth between St. Vincent Hospital leaders and Massachusetts Nurses Association focus on audit committees, other hospitals’ staffing language, resource nurses and whether the offers were insulting, not serious or “opened the door to substantive discussions,” it can be difficult to take a step back and try and put the strike in a larger context.

Why is the strike happening?

For instance, why is this strike happening here and now? Why has it gone on so long and drawn even nationalattention? And while both sides agree staffing is the main issue in the strike, can the debate over whether 1-to-5 versus 1-to-4 staffing ratios are appropriate on different units be separated from larger issues?

Those questions are difficult to definitively answer.

But discussions since the beginning of the strike with nurses, union officials, St. Vincent leaders and experts on labor help put the strike in some context.


“I definitely think there are other larger issues,” Carolyn Jackson, CEO of St. Vincent Hospital, said in an interview Thursday. “I think there has been a lot going on in health care with the pandemic and many things across the country and locally.”

David Schildmeier, a spokesman for the MNA, agreed.

“This is a broader issue, that’s why the nurses strike has struck such a chord across the country,” Schildmeier said.

Those interviewed generally focused on three factors that have played a role in the nurses’ strike: the COVID pandemic, a nursing shortage, and feelings about the corporatization of health care.

None of these factors are independent. Multiple people interviewed said COVID made the nursing shortage more acute, for instance.

Much of the evidence is also primarily anecdotal. For instance, effects of COVID may not be known for many years, and numbers and data concerning the pandemic are still being collected as the virus remains with us.

“Certainly (the nurses) tell us they have to take on too many patients,” Hans Despain, a professor of economics at Nichols College who has been following the strike, said. “What’s more difficult is finding the actual data…But I trust the chorus of nurses saying this is a reflection of the trend.”

Data on strikes are similarly limited: The Bureau of Labor Statistics only tracks strikes involving 1,000 or more workers, so the strike at St. Vincent doesn’t even register.

But the entire world experienced the pandemic.

A strike is happening here.

“As I say, it wasn’t in New York or Los Angeles, it was in Worcester, Mass.,” said Tom Juravich, a professor in the Labor Center at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and a union consultant. “That the nurses stood up to Tenet (the company that owns St. Vincent Hospital), I think there’s a lot of symbols here.”

COVID pandemic and nursing

The biggest issue that pretty much all of those interviewed identified when asked what has affected the strike was no surprise: the COVID pandemic.

“Some of what has gone across the country with picketing and some things really has to do with the stress of the pandemic,” Jackson said. “It put a strain on the overall health care workforce.”

The city confirmed its first COVID case on March 14, 2020, culminating a week when the virus became a national emergency, Gov. Charlie Baker declared a state of emergency, schools and other public facilities closed, and the state shut down.

Health care workers were on the front line and among those rightly praised as heroes, receiving tributes ranging from a fighter jet flyover to tree plantings to parades.

The support was welcome. Hospital workers experienced a lot, including burnout and depression and anxiety as they dealt with a virus that was so new that guidance on treating it often changed by the day.

Now, clearly a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic in a country with a health care system as complex — and, according to many, broken — as ours would tax many hospitals.

But several St. Vincent nurses felt the situation at the hospital was particularly bad.

“When it first came, we were totally unprepared,” Albani said. “It was like they didn’t take the fact that it was coming seriously ... I really didn’t feel at all supported by the hospital.”

Nurse Marie Ritacco, a member of the union’s bargaining committee at the hospital, agreed.

“It got exponentially worse when the middle of March last year came,” she said.

PPE complaints

Several nurses complained that PPE was not readily available; even “hidden” or “locked up,” according to Albani.

St. Vincent leaders disputed this characterization.

“During this time, the hospital never ran out of personal protective equipment, continuously implemented rigorous COVID SAFETY standards and increased access to vaccinations,” a March 2, 2021 letter from the St. Vincent Hospital Board of Trustees read.

Jackson concurred. She said the hospital “never ran out of PPE” and, in fact, had 11,000 rain ponchos that it never had to deploy for use. She also said the hospital had “minimum” staff-to-staff and patient-to-staff infections compared to some peer institutions.

“Everybody had challenges, but I would say that we did better than a lot of the hospitals that I have talked to in the state and across the country,” Jackson said. “Having adequate PPE, having tight at times but appropriate staffing, and minimal staff infections, we did pretty well.”

Nurses nevertheless put in long hours in a physically and mentally demanding situation, often with highly acute patients.

And in the midst of COVID - and a day after nurses unanimously rejected a proposed contract and also after the state announced almost $1 billion to shore up the health care industry in response to COVID, St. Vincent Hospital announced furloughs.

The hospital said the furloughs were voluntary and that more workers applied than were required. Nurses disagreed with this characterization.

But coming amidst contract disputes and in the midst of a health care crisis, nurses said they felt betrayed.

“The pandemic just made us realize that things were only going to get worse for us if we didn’t take a stand now,” Ritacco said. “Employers like ours looked at what we were able to do during the pandemic and decided that that would become our new norm, and we knew we could not perform at those crises level without really harming people in the process, and we were not going to accept that going forward...That experience just solidified for us that they were not to be trusted.”

Outside observers agree about the impact of COVID.

“I think (COVID) is really what pushed the St. Vincent’s issue to a head,” said Despain. “They already had the main dispute of staffing, then the hours put in by nurses went up because of COVID, and they just couldn’t come to an agreement.”

Juravich said the COVID “crisis” has put “all kinds of pressures on the health care industry.”

“There’s been a great need for health care because of COVID, but it’s also got in the way of hospitals doing elective surgeries, which is where they make profits,” Juravich said. “We’ve also seen a lot of activism and militarism from nurses and advocacy.”

“I think that we’ve seen across the country, nurses, and people in health care standing up and saying we deserve to be treated well,” Juravich continued. “I think that’s playing out in Worcester. Nurse-to-patient ratios do matter, and they matter a lot to their ability to do good work.”

Monica Carney, a professor of economics at the College of the Holy Cross who specializes in health care and labor, agreed that staffing ratios matter.

“I think that it’s become more apparent that support and staffing ratios matter in health care, particularly that’s important because of the pandemic,” Carney said in an interview.

Nursing shortage

But nurse-to-patient ratios are hard to fill when there is a shortage of nurses.

“Right now is a wonderful time to be entering the nursing workforce: I believe it’s a buyer’s market for nurses,” Pat Creelman, a professor of nurse education at Quinsigamond Community College, said. “Many facilities are offering sign-on bonuses because the number of nurses is so low, even for new graduates...the jobs are plentiful.”

Ethan Roden, director of human resources and operations for MSG Staffing in Worcester, agreed.

“Nurses have their pick in this present market,” Roden said in an email. “Everyone is sourcing the same candidates for the same positions. Nurses have the ability to choose where they would like to work and at what price. Nurses will not settle for less.”

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Outlook Handbook, employment of registered nurses is projected to grow 7% from 2019 to 2029, “faster than the average for all occupations.”

“Growth will occur for a number of reasons, including an increased emphasis on preventive care; increasing rates of chronic conditions, such as diabetes and obesity; and demand for health care services from the baby-boom population, as this group leads longer and more active lives,” according to the BLS.

The extent of the local shortage is difficult to determine, however.

According to a Department of Public Health spokesperson, the executive director of the state’s Board of Registration in Nursing said “she didn’t have any information or data that would be useful to share for your story.” Two queries for an interview with a representative of the Massachusetts Health and Hospital Association for this story yielded no results. Moreover, Creelman said she “can’t really comment on St. Vincent’s and don’t want to.”

However, Creelman said that in 20 years at QCC, the ebb and flow of nurses is at a low.

“Probably, we’re in a better place than we were in 2005-2006. However, I’m finding those conversations starting up again in facilities about needing to find creative ways to attract staff,” Creelman said.

COVID also didn’t help the staffing shortage on the other end.

“I believe COVID has had a negative effect on nursing, in that a lot of people have chosen to retire because of the COVID pandemic, so that has also led to the shortage in nursing,” Creelman said.

Jackson said the workforce experienced both many workers deciding to retire early and workers taking leave because the lockdown gave them additional responsibilities at home.

Juravich also said nurses’ complaints about unsafe staffing and difficult working conditions didn’t help the shortage.

“One of the bigger issues is not how many people are coming into the pipeline but how many are leaving because of these types of working conditions,” Juravich said.

“If companies want to retain nurses, then they have to hold up the conditions and staffing that make it possible to be working,” Juravich continued. “There’s not a reserve army out there in Central Mass. or anywhere in the country of nurses who are willing to go anywhere and work for any company.”
Corporate ownership

Particularly a company where a lack of trust, and as Ritacco said earlier, exists between nurses and leadership. The nurses took a vote of no confidence in Jackson’s leadership in May 2020, and the trust has only further eroded since the beginning of the strike as the hospital’s spending on police details and travel nurses has nurses questioning the hospital’s priorities.

“With all the money wasted, they could have given it to the community, given it back to the hospital and hired the nurses we need,” Nurse Chris Cuthbert said Wednesday, citing an MNA estimate that Tenet has spent more than $75 million on the strike. Jackson has disputed MNA estimates as too high but not cited an exact cost of the strike.

“Tenet could have been a hero,” Cuthbert said. “Instead they’re a zero.”

Then there is the fact that this is the second go-around between the company and striking St. Vincent nurses.

It’s also pretty easy to criticize Tenet - a for-profit health care company with 65 hospitals and approximately 450 outpatient centers and “additional sites of care” that has paid $1.7 billion in penalties since 2000, according to Good Jobs First, a national policy resource center.

Again, the pandemic exacerbated the criticism.

“The apparent greed of Tenet Healthcare during an unprecedented public health emergency and economic crisis is astounding, particularly in light of the billions in taxpayer assistance received by your company, and the ongoing failure to address the concerns of its frontline health care workers,” U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey and U.S. Reps. James P. McGovern and Lori Trahan wrote in a June 29 letter to Tenet’s CEO Ronald A. Rittenmeyer.

The letter noted that Tenet sought more than $2 billion in loans and grants from the federal government, “an effort you admitted was aimed at “maximizing [Tenet’s] cash position.” Moreover, despite the pandemic, Tenet reported annual earnings over $3.1 billion in 2020, and their stock price has increased fivefold from March 20, 2020, to June 16, 2021, according to the letter. The chain also produced a $97 million profit in the first quarter of 2021. Meanwhile, from April to June 2020, Tenet "slashed hospital spending by 11% or $377 million, while receiving more than $850 million of federal stimulus money," the letter said, citing a Tenet earnings release.

“Symbolically right now, and far beyond Worcester and the lines of the commonwealth, there is a sense that these larger corporations are sometimes not in the best interest of nurses and patients,” Juravich said. “I don’t know there is a lot of love for Tenet in Worcester.”

Juravich said that this corporate structure can lead to a disconnect between the goals of a for-profit company and the goals of nurses at the bedside.

“St. Vincent, like much of health care, has seen lots of buyouts and takeovers of smaller community hospitals, and it’s all well and good that you may want to run the hospital this way but we have traditions and practices, and our patients have needs that we need to fill on a local basis,” Juravich said. “Sometimes health care is not part of a larger strategic plan, sometimes it depends on what happens on the floors.”

Despain said this disconnect between corporate and local management is “a big part of the tension here.”

“You have a number of nurses who fundamentally don’t agree with the type of management put over them by Tenet,” Despain said. “Tenet meanwhile is trying to provide a profitable business and provide care. I don’t think Tenet is trying to not provide care; but when you do it on a shoestring, it becomes very precarious.”

Nurses concur, repeatedly referring over the course of the strike to St. Vincent Hospital as a Worcester - not a Tenet - institution.

“This is our community hospital,” nurse Dominique Muldoon said in an interview earlier this month.

Community members and politicians have also rallied to the nurses’ cause. As Schildmeier pointed out, nobody has been holding vigils or displaying lawn signs for Tenet.

But is it perhaps too easy to paint Tenet as the big, bad corporate Goliath?

“I prefer to call it a taxpaying hospital rather than a for-profit hospital,” Jackson continued. “We are quite important to the Worcester economy, not just for jobs we provide, but the tax revenue we provide for the city and the quality care we provide for the community.”

Jackson noted that the hospital was the third-largest taxpayer in the city, paying at least $13 million annually to city coffers.

“We provide excellent care and at a reasonable cost and I think Tenet has been a good steward of its hospital,” Jackson said.

The question is whether Tenet has been a good steward of its nurses.

Albani, back at the strike, didn’t think so.

She said that since Tenet took over at the hospital in 2013 the amount of supplies has decreased, there have been cheaper supplies, positions have been cut, vacant positions have not been filled soon enough, and staffing guidelines haven't been followed.

“This strike could be settled: The nurses that have been out here picketing are the hospital’s best asset as far as loyalty, integrity and commitment to patient safety,” Albani said. “They had the money, and they blew it.”

MANITOBA

Union representing non-teaching school district staff approves strike mandate

Ian Graham / Thompson Citizen
JUNE 29, 2021

Photograph By THOMPSON CITIZEN FILES

The union that represents non-teaching staff at the School District of Mystery Lake (SDML) provided their bargaining committee with a resounding strike mandate last week as they attempt to negotiate a new contract.

All of the members of United Steelworkers Local 8223 who turned out for the vote were in favour of a strike mandate.

“The local is still in the process of negotiations and will hopefully soon be in monetary discussions with the school division and trustees,” said USW District 3 staff representative Matt Winterton. “The union is hopeful that a labour dispute can be avoided through a fair settlement to this round of negotiations.”

The union represents about 185 school district employees, including custodians, maintenance workers, educational assistants, librarian clerks, information technology staff and other support staff who have been without a contract or wage increases since 2017.

“Meanwhile the cost of living has increased at least eight per cent since the expiration of their collective agreement, which means throughout the pandemic and beyond these workers have actually gone backwards financially,” said Winterton. “This is on top of the mounting pressures and burdens the provincial government is placing on the education system.”

SDML declined to comment to the Thompson Citizen about the ongoing contract negotiations.

ARKANSA

Kroger employees strike against unmet demands

by Jeane' Franseen

Friday, July 2nd 2021

Several Kroger workers participate in strike, urging the company to listen to their requests.jpg (Photo: KATV)

LITTLE ROCK (KATV) — Some Kroger employees held a strike on Friday, voicing frustrations with work conditions.

Around 10 a.m., United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 2008, the Union for 2,000 Arkansas Kroger grocery workers, held a strike at the Kroger store in Hot Springs.

Kroger employees said that the event was part of a new call for the store to provide a strong contract to its essential grocery workers. They say they are asking Kroger to protect healthcare and other benefits that are critical for employees who are still helping to protect food access for Arkansas families.

Kroger workers say they have been unable to come to an agreement with the company.

Kroger Delta Division released the following statement in response to today's strike:

"Our offer rewards and recognizes our associates for their hard work – it is not concessionary. It includes a $25 million investment in wages," said Teresa Dickerson, Kroger Corporate Affairs Manager Delta Division. "It comes down to switching our over 2700 Arkansas associates to a more reliable healthcare plan. We want to merge our retail associates into the same plan enjoyed by our Meat Associates. Let’s make it clear, our associates will still have access to premium healthcare coverage. Our offer is to move them into a company-administered healthcare plan that is more reliable and will sustain them for the future. Our goal is to avoid any disruption to the communities we serve having access to fresh food, COVID-19 vaccines, and other essential items during a pandemic especially considering COVID numbers are increasing in the state."

Officials say that negotiations between the two parties could take a while.

ALABAMA

Warrior Met Coal strike enters fourth month amidst reports of vandalism, violence
Updated Jul 01, 2021


Striking Alabama coal miners march in Tuscaloosa County against Warrior Met Coal. The strike began April 1, 2021.

By William Thornton | wthornton@al.com

Members of the United Mine Workers of America say they remain defiant as a strike against Warrior Met Coal enters its fourth month.

At the same time, UMWA International President Cecil E. Roberts urged company officials to “get this resolved.”

“If Warrior Met is waiting for our members to quit and run back to work, then the company needs to quit waiting,” Roberts said in a statement. “It’s not going to happen. I know we are going to win this strike, because we are never going to quit.”

About 1,100 workers at Warrior Met Coal have been engaged in a strike against the company since April 1. UMWA members rejected a proposed contract in April, saying that the union had already made significant concessions during its previous contract in pay, benefits, holidays and overtime to keep the company going.

Warrior Met emerged from the bankruptcy proceedings of the former Walter Energy, which declared bankruptcy in 2016.

“What Warrior Met has offered up is just a tiny fraction of what the workers gave up five years ago,” Roberts said. “But these workers are tired of being mistreated on the job. They are tired of being forced to work on holidays and missing time with their families. They are tired of being tired after working 12-hour shifts six and sometimes seven days a week. Warrior Met knows it is exploiting these workers, and its time for it to stop.”

The strike has remained largely peaceful, with large scale rallies in and around the Tuscaloosa and Birmingham areas. However, last month striking miners reported at least three instances of violence along its picket lines. And Warrior Met Coal is offering a $10,000 reward for information on three reported instances of damage to electrical transmission and distribution equipment on the company’s property.

At a Wednesday rally, Roberts said the union has distributed $4.3 million to the strikers during the three months of the strike, with $3.1 million in direct strike benefits, almost $700,000 in health care costs from the UMWA Selective Strike Fund, and $500,000 to members from donations to the Strike Aid Fund.

The union has also seen contributions from other unions, such as $200,000 from the United Food and Commercial Workers.

MALAYSIA

MMA does not condone any strike by healthcare workers during pandemic


By RAHIMY RAHIM
NATION
Sunday, 04 Jul 2021



PETALING JAYA: The Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) has distanced itself from a movement calling for a strike by contract healthcare workers at the end of the month, saying it does not condone any strike by healthcare professionals during the Covid-19 pandemic.


MMA president Prof Datuk Dr Subramaniam Muniandy clarified that MMA is working with the authorities to resolve all issues concerning contract healthcare workers in the country.

Dr Subramaniam also said that the MMA had nothing to do with the "Black Flag" campaign in protest against the government.

"MMA is concerned that there may be some confusion and wishes to clearly state that only the 'Code Black' and 'Black Monday' campaigns are initiatives by MMA in support of contract doctors.

"We also do not condone any strike by any healthcare professionals, especially during this time of a pandemic.

"We hope that this issue will not be politicised by any groups," Dr Subramaniam said in a statement on Sunday (July 4).

He said MMA's Code Black initiative, from July 1 to 12, and Black Monday on July 12, was a campaign to only encourage people to show their support for contract healthcare workers by changing their personal profile picture or company or institution logo to black or monochrome.

He added that MMA also aimed to increase awareness of the issue, inviting those who want to know more to visit the MMA's Facebook page for the latest information and updates regarding contract doctors.

People are also encouraged to wear black to work on July 12 as a sign of solidarity with contract doctors, he said.

"These are the only ways we encourage as a show of support for contract healthcare workers as per our press statement issued on June 29," the MMA president said.

Those who are interested can also share pictures of themselves holding a placard saying “We stand with Contract Healthcare Workers” with the hashtags #saveMYcontractHCW, #BlackMondayMY, and #CodeBlackMY, Dr Subramaniam said.

SPAIN'S Caixabank offers to limit job losses to 6,750 as staff strike

Jesús Aguado Reuters
PUBLISHED JUN 29, 2021

CREDIT: REUTERS/YVES HERMAN

Spain's Caixabank said it has offered to reduce its proposed job cuts by more than 1,500 to 6,750 as thousands of staff took part in another one-day strike on Tuesday.


MADRID, June 29 (Reuters) - Spain's Caixabank CABK.MC said it has offered to reduce its proposed job cuts by more than 1,500 to 6,750 as thousands of staff took part in another one-day strike on Tuesday.

Employees also protested in around 30 cities across Spain at the layoff plans, a spokesperson for Comisiones Obreras (CCOO) said, after Caixabank presented its latest offer to unions.

Caixabank said in April after it bought Bankia that it was planning to cut 8,291 jobs, one of the largest such culls in Spain, to adapt to clients moving online.

It has now offered to reduce that to 6,750, from 6,950 a week ago, while also improving compensation for those who leave the bank, Caixabank said in a statement.

Reaching an agreement with the unions is a key aspect of the Bankia deal, which is underpinned by annual cost savings of 770 million euros ($916 million) by 2023.

The CCOO wants any cuts to be made through voluntary redundancy and says layoffs should be limited to 6,300.

It is also calling for greater financial compensation.

The CCOO spokesperson said it was still too early to give an assessment of the bank's latest offer as talks, which had been expected to conclude on Tuesday, were ongoing.


CCOO said 90% of Caixabank's 5,552 branches in Spain were shut by the strike, although neither the bank nor CCOO said how many of its around 44,000 employees had taken part in it.

($1 = 0.8408 euros)

(Reporting by Jesús Aguado; Additional reporting by Emma Pinedo; Editing by Alexander Smith)