Illinois State University faculty in October unionized after “an unstoppable majority” of the 650 tenured and tenure-track faculty signed union authorization cards. The United Faculty of Illinois State gained card-check recognition from ISU’s administration, and will be part of the American Federation of Teachers’ University Professionals of Illinois Local 4100.
“Like so many thousands of working people have done in recent months, these dedicated faculty are standing up for fairness, equity and excellence by forming a member-driven union,” Illinois Federation of Teachers President Dan Montgomery. “ISU is an important part of Illinois’ higher education system, and this faculty unionization will make it an even stronger university for its students and our state.”
Safe staffing at hospitals is increasingly a workplace issue, and nurses brought the campaign for adequate staff ratios to Illinois on Oct. 3, with the 6,000-member Illinois Nurses Association joining the Chicago Black Nurses Association, SEIU Health Care, the Teamsters, and the state AFL-CIO at a legislative hearing in Chicago.
“Our hospitals are refusing to hire the appropriate number of nurses required to safely care for our patients,” said Brenda Langford, RN, of Cook County Hospital in Chicago, arguing for the proposed Illinois Safe Patients Limits Act, crafted with NNU by State Sen. Teresa Villanueva and State Rep. Teresa Mah (both D-Chicago).
A few hundred miles south, nurses at Saint Louis University Hospital last month took part in a 24-hour strike to protest “the refusal of the hospital administration to address the Registered Nurses’ deep concerns about patient care, safe staffing and workplace violence,” said SLU nurse Maddi O’Leary.
Finally, a three-day Unfair Labor Practice strike by some 75,000 workers in a coalition of 14 unions at Kaiser Permanente over staffing shortages and pay ended without a deal with the industry giant. It was the largest such action by healthcare workers in U.S. history.
Pharmacists strike in KC, then nationwide. Last month, CVS pharmacists in the Kansas City area walked out over understaffing and low pay, backed by state and national pharmacist associations. The action got the chain to promise to increase staffing and reduce workloads throughout the area.
The next day, thousands of Walgreens pharmacy staff across the country walked off the job, saying increased demands on understaffed teams put workers and patients at risk.
Walgreens spokesman Fraser Engerman, a former Peoria news broadcaster, told the Washington Post, “We are making significant investments in pharmacist wages and hiring bonuses to attract/retain talent in harder to staff locations,” but offered no details.
Chicago landmark restaurant broke law in layoffs: union. Unite Here Local 1, representing 132 workers at the scenic Signature Room on the 95th floor of the 875 N. Michigan building (formerly the John Hancock Center), filed a federal lawsuit accusing restaurant operator Infusion Management of violating Illinois’ law requiring employers to give 60 days’ notice of a closing or mass layoff.
The union says workers were notified of the layoffs in a 6 a.m. email sent the day the restaurant closed on Sept. 28, and the state’s Workers Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN Act) applies to employers with at least 75 full-time workers and requires a 60-day layoff notice when a single work site closes and at least 25 full-time workers are cut.
Unite Here also filed a complaint with the Illinois Department of Labor.
News briefs courtesy of The Labor Paper: “Like” us — www.facebook.com/The-Labor-Paper