Here are 15 updates on unionization efforts at hospitals, health systems and medical groups in July:
1. Clinic nurses and advanced practice providers at Duluth, Minn.-based Essentia Health — all of whom are members of the Minnesota Nurses Association — ended their strikes on July 23 and July 22, respectively. More than 300 clinic nurses, surgery center nurses and hospice healthcare workers began an open-ended strike July 8, an MNA spokesperson confirmed to Becker’s. The workers are spread across Essentia’s 1st Street Clinic, 2nd Street Clinic, 3rd Street Clinic, Superior Clinic, Solvay Hospice House and Miller Hill Surgery Center .More than 400 advanced practice providers in Essentia’s East Market began striking July 10, according to a July 22 MNA news release shared with Becker’s.
2. Hundreds of unionized employees at UC San Diego Health and UCSF Health staged one-day strikes on July 22 and 25, protesting recent layoffs that labor groups allege threaten patient care and exacerbate staffing shortages across the University of California health system.
3. Members of SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania at WellSpan Chambersburg (Pa.) Hospital ratified a new three-year labor contract July 16.
4. Nurses at University Medical Center New Orleans, represented by the National Nurses Organizing Committee, an affiliate of National Nurses United, began a two-day strike July 15 — the hospital’s fourth in less than a year.
5. Minnesota Nurses Association members at hospitals across the Twin Cities area and in Duluth voted to ratify new contracts following four months of negotiations July 14.
6. Resource pool nurses working at Legacy Health hospitals in Oregon and Washington voted to join the Oregon Nurses Association July 8.
7. Members of the National Nurses Organizing Committee, an affiliate of National Nurses United, conducted a strike July 24 at Ascension St. Agnes Hospital in Baltimore — marking the nurses’ first-ever strike.
8. Members of SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania planned to begin a five-day strike July 22 at Chambersburg (Pa.) Hospital, part of York, Pa.-based WellSpan Health.
The union represents 1,450 nurses and other healthcare workers at the hospital, including emergency department technicians; lab technicians; unit secretaries; pharmacists; certified nurse aides; environmental services aides; radiology technologists; and dietary aides
9. Union workers at Minneapolis-based Hennepin County Medical Center asked county commissioners to launch an outside investigation into management’s alleged treatment of workers July 10.
10. Members of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota & Iowa began a four-day strike July 8 at HealthPartners Clinic Stillwater (Minn.) The union represents more than 80 workers in roles such as licensed practical nurse, certified medical assistant and other service-unit healthcare positions in the family medicine, OB-GYN, pediatrics and specialties departments.
11. Members of 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East and Communications Workers of America reached a three-year tentative labor agreement with Buffalo, N.Y.-based Kaleida Health
12. Members of OPEIU Local 40 are planned to begin a three-day strike July 7 at McLaren Macomb, a 288-bed tertiary teaching hospital in Mount Clemens, Mich.
13. Members of the Minnesota Nurses Association in the Twin Cities Metro region reached a tentative labor contract with their hospital employers, averting a strike.
14. More than 500 employees across three groups at Philadelphia-based Temple Health ratified their first union contracts.
15. Workers at Sharp HealthCare medical offices across the San Diego area voted to form a union with SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West.
