H1N1 news for USW members: Arm yourself with facts, prevention
They call it a pandemic. The World Health Organization (WHO) panel of experts examined the evidence and concluded that novel H1N1 influenza is infecting people around the world at a rapid rate. We are all at risk – ourselves, our families, and co-workers. Entire healthcare systems are in danger too. As healthcare workers, we are the frontline ...... more

USW Ratifies Collective Bargaining Agreement With Appalachian Regional Healthcare
United Steelworkers (USW) voted overwhelmingly yesterday to ratify a contract with Appalachian Regional Healthcare, ending a 25-day strike against the giant medical system that operates nine hospitals and 11 clinics in West Virginia and Kentucky. The vote clears the way for 2,700 certified nurse aides, licensed practical nurses, housekeepers, maintenance ...... more

USW Announces Tentative Agreement With Appalachian Regional Healthcare
Pensions secured, wages increased, health insurance costs limited The United Steelworkers (USW) announced late Saturday night that it reached a tentative contract with Appalachian Regional Healthcare, the hospital system in Kentucky and West Virginia against which 2,700 employees began a strike April 1. Roger McGinnis, president of the USW local at ...... more

Rhode Island Committee Votes to End Mandatory Overtime for Nurses
Legislation that would ban mandatory overtime for nurses working in hospitals is moving through the Rhode Island legislature again, but this time it appears to have more momentum than in the past. A measure that would prohibit hospitals from forcing nurses to work overtime against their will passed the House Committee on Labor unanimously, which moves ...... more

Robert Wood Johnson Nurses Ratify New Agreement, Win Quality Health Care
Registered nurses at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, NJ, overwhelmingly ratified a new collective bargaining agreement, 769-117, in all-day voting yesterday, United Steelworkers Local 4-200 announced here late last night. Approval of the new contract, which includes major improvements in health care coverage for nurses and ...... more

USW Among RNs Working Together Rallying in Chicago
USW activists were part of a wide ranging coalition of unions rallying to protest a possible decision by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) that would deny nurses and many other union members their right to remain in their bargaining units under the pretext that they are engaged in management oversight functions. The case, commonly referred to ...... more

Nurses Unions Launch Unprecedented National Effort To Coordinate Unionization And Patients’ Rights Campaigns
Eight AFL-CIO Unions, Often Seen as Competitors, Representing 200,000 Registered Nurses Will Work Together on Bargaining, Organizing, Policy and Communications Leaders of eight AFL-CIO unions representing nearly 200,000 registered nurses announced today that they are banding together to coordinate their organizing and bargaining activities in an effort ...... more

Steelworkers continue to lead the fight for “HealthCare-NOW!”
Maybe it was the hall. UAW Local 600 has been the birthplace of many great struggles. The 500 people who came to the Detroit Health Care NOW! Hearings might have been inspired by the rows of photographs of earlier fights. Or maybe it was the announcement, just days before, of the impending bankruptcy of Delphi Corporation, a major auto parts supplier. ...... more

Solidarity Forever - Actions That Work!
Health Care Workers Council members know that we can better achieve our collective goals when we all work together. Here are some solidarity actions that USW health care units utilized during first-contract campaigns: The RNs and social workers from Gracedale Nursing Home of Northampton County, Local Union 2599, Lehigh Valley, Pa., participated in ...... more

Health Care Employees Report Cites Scarcity of Minorities In Health Professions, Identifies Solutions
Blacks, Hispanics, and American Indians make up more than 25 percent of the U.S. population, but account for only 9 percent of the nation’s nurses, 6 percent of its physicians, and 5 percent of its dentists, according to a report released September 20 by the Sullivan Commission on Diversity in the Healthcare Work Force. In addition, the report said ...... more

HIPAA ALERT!
What is HIPAA? The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), was the result of efforts by the Clinton Administration and congressional health care reform proponents to reform health care. The goals and objectives of this legislation are to streamline industry inefficiencies, reduce paperwork, make it easier to detect and ...... more

Test Your HIPAA IQ - True or False?
1. Jane works in the dietary department at Memorial Hospital where one of her duties is to deliver patient meal trays to the floors. She is not required to take the trays into the patients’ rooms. Because Jane has no direct contact with the patients, the HIPAA laws do not affect her. False. As an employee of the hospital who has potential access to ...... more

States Ready to Ban Mandatory Overtime
These states are not alone in their fight to institute safe staffing. Unions in Michigan, Minnesota, and Oregon and other states have won contracts with hospitals that either set exact ratios or give nurses input on staffing guidelines. Additionally, unions in Philadelphia, northern Michigan, Honolulu, and Long Island, N.Y., among others, have held ...... more

Learning a Lesson from Down Under
Australia has provided an example of the salutary effect of ratios on expanding the RN workforce. In 2001, adoption of nurse-to-patient ratios in the state of Victoria, Australia, has brought an additional 2,600 nurses into Victoria’s public hospital system, a 13 percent increase, while other Australian states continue to battle a nursing shortage. ...... more

Workplace Actions Are The Key To Success
This is the fun and creative part of mobilization and member involvement. The best collective actions: Allow members to participate directly in an activity. Send a visible message to management, elected officials or legislators. Some collective actions are also designed to attract media coverage so that we can explain our message to the community and/or ...... more