Workplace Violence is Unacceptable

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Thursday February 06, 2014 · 3:54 PM PST

2014/02/06 · 15:54

The Emergency Nurses Association's recently published study — “Nothing Changes, Nobody Cares: Understanding the Experience of Emergency Nurses Physically or Verbally Assaulted While Providing Care” — spells out exactly what every healthcare worker has shared with the California Safe Care Standard campaign since its launch: the culture of acceptance about workplace violence prevalent among hospital administrators and law enforcement needs to change.

This post is about the study and to introduce (or re-introduce) you to the California Safe Care Standard Campaign to get us to a comprehensive workplace violence prevention standard with Cal/OSHA that will cover all healthcare workers.

Union Review

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Wednesday August 25, 2010 · 8:29 AM PDT

2010/08/25 · 08:29

The US Senate recently proclaimed a week in September to be designated as a time to "recognize" direct care workers. That's fantastic. What they should also recognize, however, is that more than 1.5 million home care workers are currently living at near-poverty level earning a median income of $17,000 a year. Most of these workers, who both love their work and are good at their work, must have two and three jobs to just make ends meet. Many of these workers need food stamps to put food on their tables. All this ultimately hurts the consumer, who often finds it difficult to find and retain high quality home care services.

Meet me on the other side, tell me what you think.

Union Review

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Saturday August 14, 2010 · 6:49 AM PDT

2010/08/14 · 06:49

If you or your family don't need a home care worker, my guess is that you won't have these workers on your mind. That's fine, but my goal here is to share with you a little about what these workers are experiencing in their day to day. I want to share the archaic laws that govern their poverty wages, and see what you think we can do to make some changes.

Meet me on the other side ...

Union Review

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Thursday August 05, 2010 · 11:58 AM PDT

2010/08/05 · 11:58

If your elderly or disabled family member, who chooses to live at home, needed assistance with daily care, would you try to get the same babysitter you call on for date nights with your spouse? Of course you wouldn't.

The majority of home care workers earn poverty wages. There are no benefits. No healthcare coverage. The lack of federal labor protections only exacerbates these working conditions. As a result, home care workers struggle to care for their own families. This needs to change, and can.

Meet me on the other side, let me explain.

Poll

24 votes Show Results

If you need a professional homecare worker, would call your babysitter?

24 votes Vote Now!

If you need a professional homecare worker, would call your babysitter?

Sure, what the hell, its just my dad.

4 votes

I don't know, I hated my parents and grandparents, so this doesn't apply to me

1 vote

Of course not, that's insane

19 votes

Why are the people caring for our older parents and grandparents excluded from minimum wage and ove

Union Review

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday July 15, 2010 · 8:10 AM PDT

2010/07/15 · 08:10

Full Disclosure: I am a staff member at the Service Employees International Union. My union is teamed up with a few other organizations working on this campaign.

We don’t usually think about home care workers until our parents or grandparents need their services. They are the workers who are in the homes with the patients, and who have to deal with the most intimate responsibilities. They are caregivers who believe that everyone -- no matter their age or illness -- deserve proper care, companionship, and, in many cases, love.

And they deliver!

Most people don’t realize that these hard workers are excluded from minimum wage and overtime protections. No matter the intense and often thankless work, many have to have two or three jobs just to make ends meet; yet they are taking care of our parents and grandparents in ways we cannot.

Poll

60 votes Show Results

Do you think home care workers are babysitters?

60 votes Vote Now!

Do you think home care workers are babysitters?

Yes

10 votes

50 votes

I don't know and I don't give a crap!

0 votes

Nurse to Patient Ratios: The Lucky Few

Union Review

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Wednesday June 23, 2010 · 11:17 AM PDT

2010/06/23 · 11:17

My colleague writes:

When nurses have the time to professionally monitor our patients, we identify the smallest changes in a patient's condition and thereby prevent complications that might otherwise lead to death. We provide the care that eases pain and reduces fear. When nurses have too many patients on a shift, that level of attention is impossible to maintain; and patients lie in wait and at risk.

She also says it doesn't have to be this way, discusses ways in which this can be changed.

I am posting this on her behalf to help spread the word. We'd appreciate your feedback.

Union Review

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Wednesday June 09, 2010 · 12:14 PM PDT

2010/06/09 · 12:14

One of the best books I ever read on wage theft was written by a colleague named Kim Bobo. In her book "Wage Theft in America," she wrote that "wage theft in America is the crime wave no one talks about."

So, me and a few others working in and around the labor movement have taken the challenge to get out news about wage theft when the opportunity arises. Today I was given that opportunity again.

But wait, hold on ... it is not all doom and gloom! This piece is about a phenomenal victory, valued at $8.5 million, for workers who stood up for their rights at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Neeham Mount Auburn Hospital and New England Baptist Hospital who were allegedly victims of wage theft.

Meet me on the other side.

Union Review

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Tuesday June 08, 2010 · 2:01 PM PDT

2010/06/08 · 14:01

Last week I put up a cross-posted a diary about resident physicians forced to work 24-hour days. The conversation (comments) below the piece were fascinating. It seemed like most people were in favor of having these physicians working less hours, mainly for the safety of their patients -- and themselves.

One of the solutions to bargaining hours of service is to do so collectively, in other words, organize a union.

The resident physicians at St. Barnabas in the Bronx, NY -- who the last post was mostly about, got some incredible news last night. The National Labor Relations Board issued a decision stating that the physicians are statutory employees with a right to organize.

The hospital has held the physicians back, claiming the physicians didn't even have a right to vote for unionization based on the theory that these doctors were "students," and therefore not eligible for union rights. Whether the hospital knew it or not, this idea of theirs is simply not true.

On the other side of the fold is a cross-post on this news. I am bringing it here to piggy back on my last diary.

Union Review

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Tuesday June 01, 2010 · 11:35 AM PDT

2010/06/01 · 11:35

NOTE: I published this here first.

New findings, published in today's edition of the online journal BMC Medicine, indicates that Americans strongly favor tighter regulation of the number of consecutive hours that resident physicians are allowed to work, go figure. This is the first systematic study of public perceptions of resident doctors' work hours.

Union Review

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Sunday March 28, 2010 · 9:37 AM PDT

2010/03/28 · 09:37

For a long time I have felt that online union organizing, mobilizing and education included sharing news and views of the labor movement that doesn't usually make it to mainstream media. Over the years I have met a lot of progressives who'd say they'd be in support of most labor issues, if they knew what they were. In part, this is what I work to do with my site Union Review. What is interesting though is that I fall into the same rut a lot of other organizers do: I end up preaching to the choir. I don't often get to sites like Kos to cross-post our news and engage in conversation about the issues, instead I will spend hours on Facebook and Twitter spreading the news to workers that happen to be on those social media sites.

Today I thought would be a perfect time to share some of the stories that made it to UnionReview with Kos readers. My goal here to just inform folks about some of the things going on in the labor movement, and of course this list of news items is hardly exhaustive -- there is so much more going on that I don't get to.

Meet me on the other side of the fold for the links to stories that made it to Union Review in the last month or so.

Union Review

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Saturday January 16, 2010 · 6:15 AM PST

2010/01/16 · 06:15

This is a report that was provided to the AFL-CIO yesterday on the Carwash Campaign in LA. I thought that it was important for people to read this stuff to understand how intense it is for working people to organize a union, fight for what is right and fair and how to avoid getting ripped off from their employers.

Poll

14 votes Show Results

Have You Were Worked And Not Got Paid?

14 votes Vote Now!

Have You Were Worked And Not Got Paid?

No, it would never happen to me

4 votes

Yes, but I didn't care ... at least I had a job

10 votes

In Trade, Too Often, the Victim is Blamed

Union Review

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday January 12, 2010 · 3:53 AM PST

2010/01/12 · 03:53

Aside from other things, I publish a web site called UnionReview.com. It is a pro-labor online community blog where workers and leaders can send in their news and views of the labor movement. Last night the president of the United Steel Workers submitted a blog entry that I want to cross-post here to open up to discussion.

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Workplace Violence is Unacceptable

I recognize you do amazing work, but you're still not getting minimum wage

Does the Fair Labor Standards Act Hate Home Care Workers?

If your elderly or disabled family member needed homecare, would you call your babysitter?

Why are the people caring for our older parents and grandparents excluded from minimum wage and ove

Nurse to Patient Ratios: The Lucky Few

Wage theft is not legal. Period.

National Labor Relations Board Says Resident Physicians Are Employees and Can Form Their Union!

Did you know resident physicians are required to work 24-hour days?

Union Movement News and Views, A Review

LA Carwash Workers Fight for Justice

In Trade, Too Often, the Victim is Blamed