• Kaiser Permanente mental health care clinician strike (which is understood to be open-ended) continued for a second week as one of the U.S.’ largest healthcare employers grappled with canceling 1000+ appointments. The current strike remains centered in California but will expand to Hawaii, where mental health care workers will soon head to the picket lines.
• On Hold: The SEIU-sponsored $25 minimum wage for California healthcare workers (at private hospitals) hit a roadblock after the Los Angeles City Council voted an ordinance into law, which was later signed by Mayor Eric Garcetti. Hospitals immediately opposed the ordinance (citing its cost as a burden) while asking for a repeal. The SEIU continues to push for the law to survive, and if the union gathers enough signatures, the issue could go to voters in November.
• Some good news: The Mankato Mayo Clinic (in Minnesota) got the official greenlight from the NLRB to boot their union, which they allege foisted union fees upon them (Minnesota is not a Right To Work state) while waging unwanted representation, which the nurses described as a monopoly. The union fought the workers’ efforts all the way, even attempting to block a decertification vote.
• Elsewhere, the Michigan Nurses Association sued the University of Michigan, which the union accused of refusing to bargain over workloads and wages for a new contract. In Buffalo, New York, almost 400 nurses walked out of the local Veterans Affairs center to protest staffing shortages and 20-hour shifts.
• Covid 19 still very much looms and National Nurses United called upon the CDC to further weigh-in on protecting healthcare workers in the workplace.
