PROTECTING OUR RIGHTS - Together We Win

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PROTECTING OUR RIGHTS - Together We Win

Jodi Spurgin is a workplace leader at Holy Family Hospital. Five of her co-workers came to her saying they were not being paid the rest between shift premium (their contract states, you are allowed 12 hours rest before starting your next shift or you will be paid an additional premium for those hours worked). Management fought and retaliated against the workers by making scheduling more difficult. Jodi, with the help of the union and her co-workers, stood up and fought back. 

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Hospital Workers Join Community to Oppose Closure of Harrison Medical Center in Bremerton

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For Immediate Release: August 23, 2017

Hospital Workers Join Community to Oppose Closure of Harrison Medical Center in Bremerton

The union that represents workers at Harrison Medical Center (HMC) in Kitsap County has declared its opposition to CHI Franciscan Health’s (CHI Franciscan) plan to close HMC’s Bremerton campus. UFCW 21 announced today that, while it supports having a new, unionized hospital in Silverdale, Phase 2 of CHI Franciscan’s plan should be to upgrade or replace the hospital that currently serves the largest city in Kitsap – rather than close it down, as CHI Franciscan intends.

UFCW 21 member Aimee Oien said, “As a Pharmacy Tech at Harrison and a Kitsap resident, I expect CHI Franciscan to put the community’s needs ahead of their corporate parent’s bottom line. Kitsap County gives CHI a huge property tax exemption. It just does not make sense for them to close the hospital in our largest city.”

It is the position of UFCW 21 that instead of cutting staff, closing a hospital and outsourcing work, CHI Franciscan should improve staffing levels, keep more union workers on the job serving patients, and maintain hospital beds in the largest city in the County. That path would be better for health care workers, patients and the community.

Aimee Oien is one of about 1,300 members of UFCW 21 who work at HMC in Bremerton and Silverdale. These workers are members of UFCW 21 which represents more than 3,300 healthcare and grocery store workers who live in Kitsap County, and more than 46,000 around the state of Washington. UFCW 21 is the state’s largest private sector local union.

BACKGROUND:

CHI Franciscan’s parent company, Catholic Health Initiatives, acquired HMC in 2013 and recently asked the Washington State Department of Health (DoH) for permission to permanently close the hospital’s Bremerton campus and relocate all HMC hospital beds to its Silverdale campus. CHI’s plan calls for opening one new hospital tower in Silverdale in 2020 and a second in 2023, at which time the Bremerton campus would be closed.

DoH had originally approved CHI Franciscan’s request, but then in an unusual move agreed to reconsider its decision after reviewing information provided by the City of Bremerton, which opposes the hospital closure.

UFCW 21 Encourages Everyone to Attend Hearing:

The DoH will hold a second public hearing on CHI Franciscan’s plan.

·         Friday, September 8

·         Bremerton School District Office (134 Marion Ave N. Bremerton).

·         UFCW 21 members and allies will rally at 9:30 AM, prior to the start of the 10:30 hearing.

Now more than ever, sticking together.

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Brothers, Sisters and Friends -
 
Our UFCW 21 family includes people of all faiths, ethnicities, genders, languages, sexual orientations and ages. We will stand together. We will protect one another. We will have each other’s backs. That is what it means to be union. That is what it means to be American.
 
We are writing to you with great sadness, but also with great determination to defeat the voices of hate and division that are becoming louder and more dangerous across our country. For many years, our mission has been building a more powerful union that fights for economic, political and social justice in our workplaces and in our communities.
 
This past weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia we saw what happens when violent hate groups feel empowered by racist rhetoric and policy initiatives from the highest levels of our government. The white supremacists that gathered there proudly carried symbols of racism and anti-Semitism and threatened violence against peaceful counter-protestors. In an act of domestic terrorism, one of these men sped his car into a peaceful crowd, injuring 19 and killing a young woman named Heather Heyer, who was well-known locally as an advocate for social justice.
 
The rise of racism is a problem we cannot ignore. Racism divides us from each other and, in so doing, it weakens our union and our communities. When we look to history, we see how employers have used racism in order to exploit workers and keep them from uniting for better wages and working conditions. In fact, some of the strongest anti-union laws being pushed today originated in the 1940s with white supremacist groups trying to maintain the racist Jim Crow labor system. The fight against racism is a moral imperative. And it is also a fight against union busting.
 
Here in Washington we are not immune to racial injustice. Just one week ago, a young Mexican man named Honesto Silva Ibarra, a Saraband Farms worker in Sumas, Washington, died after allegedly being denied needed medical attention in the fields. After his death, at least 70 of Ibarra’s co-workers protested unsafe working conditions. Saraband Farms fired them. In an atmosphere of rising anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies, perhaps this employer felt free to mistreat and abuse these workers because they are from Mexico and other countries outside the United States.
 
Also, here in our backyard the recent killing by Seattle police officers of a young mother, Charleena Lyles, highlights the need to address issues of police accountability. In the three years since the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, we have been repeatedly confronted with the sad fact that race and bias are factors in policing and as a result people of color and marginalized people are disproportionately impacted by police violence. Again, we will stand together. We will protect one another. We will have each other’s backs. That’s what it means to have a strong union and build strong communities.
 
If you have been watching what’s happening and wondering what you can do, now is the time to join with UFCW 21 to make a change. Here are just a few of the initiatives you can work on as a member of UFCW 21:

  • Help UFCW 21 form Rapid Response Networks to protect our brothers and sisters when they and their families face racist threats, including anti-immigrant raids. Get involved by sending an email to action@ufcw21.org with the subject line "Rapid Response Networks"
  • Challenge racism in our workplaces and our communities, by participating in the Washington State Labor Council’s Race and Labor Initiative. Get involved by sending an email to action@ufcw21.org with the subject line "Race and Labor Initiative"
  • Support our partner organization, Community to Community, which is working to win justice for immigrant workers at Saraband Farms and throughout Northwest Washington. Get involved by sending an email to action@ufcw21.org with the subject line "Support Farmworkers"
  • Join UFCW 21 to help pass Initiative 940 to De-Escalate Washington by requiring police be trained in violence de-escalation, mental health, and first aid; mandating that police should render first aid at the scene; and applying a good faith standard for use of deadly force. Get involved by sending an email to action@ufcw21.org with the subject line "De-escalate Washington"
  • If you want to request that you or a co-worker become a Union Steward to help lead your workplace, get involved by sending an email to action@ufcw21.org with the subject line "Steward Training Request"

We want to close by thanking all of you who have stepped up to play a leadership role in our union, as stewards, as bargaining team members, as volunteer organizers and in many other capacities.
 
It is our activists and stewards who lead the effort to enforce and bargain better contracts, pass legislation that reflects our values, and build strong bonds with the communities we serve.
 
In the coming months and years we will need even more of you to emerge as leaders to help us defeat the voices of hate and racism that seek to divide and weaken us.
 
Sincerely,
 
UFCW 21 Executive Board

UFCW 21 Resolutions @ the 2017 Washington State Labor Council Convention

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Last month UFCW 21 members joined union members from across the state for the 2017 Washington State Labor Council Convention in Vancouver. Every year, delegates to the convention discuss and pass resolutions submitted by union locals and councils that establish priorities for the WSLC, including the resolutions UFCW 21 members helped pass below!