Front-line service, care and technical workers are among the 200 workers at Loretto Hospital in Austin who have been on strike since Monday.
Unions
Loretto Hospital Workers Join SAG-AFTRA Members in Solidarity Rally, as Hospital Strike Enters Day 5
Hospital workers at Loretto Hospital in Austin went to the picket lines Monday after the hospital and its workers union failed to come to an agreement on key bargaining issues such as increased wages and staffing, and adding Juneteenth as a permanent holiday.
The governor’s office said the contract is projected to cost an additional $204 million in the first year and $625 million over four years.
Top Democratic officials on Tuesday signed a “labor peace agreement.” The deal means that the Democratic National Committee will use union labor when available and that the unions won’t strike during the four-day convention scheduled for next August.
UPS has reached a contract agreement with its 340,000-person strong union Tuesday, averting a strike that had the potential to disrupt logistics nationwide for businesses and households alike.
Negotiations broke down earlier this month and unionized workers have been holding rallies and practice pickets across the country. The Teamsters, which represent more than half of the company’s workforce, will resume talks with UPS on Tuesday.
The National Labor Relations Board found merit or partial merit in the union’s allegations, which include Howard Brown Health participating in bad faith bargaining, creating the impression of surveillance, failing to provide information and declaring impasse and refusing to bargain over layoffs.
In Chicago, hundreds of strikers — many wearing black SAG T-shirts — marched and chanted at Millennium Park and Grant Park, “We’re union/United/Never be divided.” A small brass band played “This Land Is Your Land.”
Nearly 200 workers at Loretto Hospital in Austin delivered a 10-day strike notice to management Wednesday over calls to address low wages and unsafe staffing conditions.
Leaders of a Hollywood’s actors union voted Thursday to join screenwriters in the first joint strike in more than six decades, shutting down production across the entertainment industry.
Twenty states have passed laws or policies banning gender-affirming care for youth, according to the Human Rights Campaign. Howard Brown said it saw an increase of 5,000 patients last year — 5% of that being out-of-state patients seeking gender-affirming care.
This past weekend, many workers at the Museum of Science and Industry voted to unionize. According to unofficial results released by AFSCME, nearly three quarters of employees who voted cast a ballot in favor of representation.
The 24 million packages UPS ships on an average day amounts to about a quarter of all U.S. parcel volume, according to the global shipping and logistics firm Pitney Bowes, or as UPS puts it, the equivalent of about 6% of nation’s gross domestic product.
The Writers Guild of America began its nationwide strike May 2 after negotiations stalled with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. Among key issues are increased wages and fair pay structures for writers in a streaming era.
Streaming and its ripple effects are at the center of the dispute. The Writers Guild of America says that even as series budgets have increased, writers’ share of that money has consistently shrunk.
A wave of labor actions swept through Illinois public universities this month, with faculty at Chicago State, Eastern Illinois and Governors State universities on strike at various times throughout April.
