CHS faces strike at Pa. hospital
Posted on November 16, 2009 at 11:44 amService Employees International Union representatives have issued a strike notice at Pottstown Memorial Hospital, a Community Health Systems facility where the previous labor contract expired in August. The move comes after CHS officials appear to have gone AWOL.
Speaking at the press conference, hospital workers said their employer failed to “show up” at the three previous meetings in which negotiations were expected to continue. Roy Feick, a certified pharmacy technician at the hospital for five years, said CHS has shown “no respect for us at PMMC or the community of Pottstown … otherwise they would attend negotiations.
“We can’t negotiate with ourselves; we need CHS in the room,” he added.
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Union suing HCA over flu shots
Posted on November 4, 2009 at 11:39 am
The Service Employees International Union says the country’s biggest hospital operator can’t unilaterally require employees to wear surgical masks if they haven’t been immunized against the H1N1 virus.
Union officials say the policy should have been subject to negations since it affects employment terms, but HCA has declined to bargain. HCA officials said the policy is part of their comprehensive infection-control program to protect workers and patients, and they plan to continue moving forward with it.
Union turns up heat on CHS in Pennsylvania
Posted on October 28, 2009 at 11:22 amRepresentatives of the Service Employees International Union have presented a 400-person petition to officials at Pottstown Memorial Medical Center, a Community Health Systems hospital outside Philadelphia. The two parties are working to replace a contract that expired in August.
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CHS’ Spokane labor issues worsening
Posted on September 2, 2009 at 3:20 pm
The National Labor Relations Board has filed charged Community Health Systems with negotiating in bad faith in its dealings with Service Employees International Union members in Spokane, Wash. The development comes six months after Franklin-based CHS first ran into trouble with union workers there, tensions that were exacerbated when the company laid off more than two dozen people.
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Coming up with $2 trillion
Posted on May 11, 2009 at 8:34 am
That’s what a coalition of health care industry groups say they will seek to do over the next decade. The push to cut costs out of the health sector has even united the American Hospital Association and the SEIU, which has been pushing nurses to organize around the country.
On a Sunday conference call, senior administration officials hailed the effort as “a game changer” in the health care debate. “I don’t think there can be a more significant step to helping struggling families and to help the federal budget,” said one aide. “It just makes it even clearer than ever that health reform is going to happen this year in the Congress,” added another.
The effort, which those familiar with the plan say will aim for greater care coordination, lower administrative costs and the bundling of payments among health care providers and recipients, could result in a three percent reduction of gross domestic product by the year 2019. That year alone, the industry could save $700 billion. On a more personal level, White House aides project that after five years a family of four could be saving $2,500 a year.
SEE ALSO: From the Journal, a look at the first major obstacle to the plan. And via change:healthcare’s blog, a myopic, in-the-trenches debate about incentivizing patients to help cut costs.
Union to picket CHS hospitals
Posted on April 6, 2009 at 7:25 pmFrom an e-mail:
Nurses and caregivers at Valley Hospital & Medical Center and Deaconess Medical Center in Spokane today delivered notice of their intention to picket the hospitals. The picket, scheduled for Thursday, April 23, is intended to alert the community that Community Health Systems (CHS) has broken promises it made when it purchased the two hospitals last fall, and is refusing to engage in good faith negotiations with the union.
CHS acquired the two hospitals in 2008, and promised the community it would maintain wages and benefits and revitalize the two struggling hospitals. Union members and the hospitals, owned by Tennessee-based Community Health Systems, have been negotiating a new contract for 6 months.
“CHS came to bargaining with proposals to slash our benefits and reduce our pay,” said Teri Nicholson, RN at Valley Hospital and Medical Center. “After all the promises we had heard, we were just shocked. CHS is a very profitable company. We don’t have much choice but to picket and let our community know what’s happening.”
“Even in this economy, there is a serious shortage of skilled healthcare workers, from nurses to radiology techs. We lose staff all the time to other hospitals and healthcare providers, and that makes it harder to continue our delivery of the highest quality patient care,” said Sharon Kile, radiology/mammography tech at Deaconess. “CHS promised our community that they would address this, but so far instead of working with us to resolve these problems, they’ve been trying to break our union.”
Nurses, techs, and service workers from the two hospitals will participate in informational picketing outside the hospitals during their non-working hours on April 23. More than 40 employees hand delivered the notices to the CEOs of each hospital.
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CHS runs into labor trouble in Spokane
Posted on March 13, 2009 at 1:25 amLess than six months after buying the Empire Health Services system for more than $150 million – and three months after beginning to invest more than $11 million in improvements – it appears Community Health Systems’ honeymoon in Spokane is over and pickets could be on the way.
“Community Health made promises to the employees and to the community that it would boost the hospitals and keep employees with competitive pay and benefits,” Barton said. “Now their message is, ‘You should be happy to have a job.’”
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Union pipes up in health care privatization talks
Posted on February 3, 2009 at 7:47 amThe Service Employees International Union says it is strongly opposed to moves to privatize Metro’s Bordeaux long-term care and Knowles assisted-living facilities.
“They’re really concerned because every year they hear talk, at budget time especially, and every year it seems like they hear it and it just goes away,” Collier said. “But it’s at a critical juncture where we can’t just let it lie.”
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