It’s Worker Wednesday: July 10, 2024.
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You probably heard about the very public bankruptcy of Iowa City’s *other* hospital, Mercy Iowa City.
You may have also heard that the hospital and around 1,000 jobs were saved when University of Iowa Health Care (UIHC) agreed to buy Mercy, changing the hospital’s name to UI Health Care Medical Center Downtown.
But you may not have heard about what’s been happening behind the scenes to those health care workers navigating the transition.
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Mercy workers officially joined UIHC on Jan. 31 of this year, becoming part of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) in the process.
But before they could be represented by the union, workers got an offer letter in the mail from their new employer, according to Chris Russell, an organizer with SEIU Minnesota and Iowa. They were told the seniority, vacation, and sick time they’d built up at Mercy would be gone, and they would be on a nine-month probationary period. Some even saw a pay cut of $2-$4 per hour. They were given three days to sign it.
Russell told me that they’d tried working with UIHC leadership, including CEO Bradley Haws, for months. Now, they’re hoping a public pressure campaign will start those discussions.
“We’re in a (health care worker) shortage,” Russell said. “We want to keep these workers here in Iowa City. We don’t want to force them to have to move away from this area and the state. And that’s what people are doing, because they’re not being treated well.”
I’m working on speaking to a few of those affected workers to get an inside perspective; if that’s you, feel free to reach out (and I can keep you anonymous).
And, if you’ve ever been a UIHC patient, show your solidarity to former Mercy workers by sending a letter to UIHC’s CEO here.
Bonus: This isn’t the first time I’ve written about UIHC workers getting jerked around by their employer, which by the way is overseen by the Iowa Board of Regents. (At least they won!).
Double bonus: This recent Reddit thread about UIHC’s pay scale is… illuminating.
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Working class news you can use:
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More John Deere layoffs: 211 workers at John Deere Davenport Works, and another 99 workers at John Deere Dubuque Works, will be laid off by Aug. 30, in addition to another 280 workers across the river in East Moline. It follows mass layoffs at Deere plants in Waterloo and Ankeny, as well as news that Deere is looking to cut costs by building a plant in Mexico. Iowa Ag Secretary Mike Naig seems to think it’s all inevitable, but Deere made almost $2.4 billion this spring.
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Smithfield in Altoona is closing: A total of 319 workers will be laid off by Aug. 30. State Sen. Nate Boulton, a Democrat, says Iowa Republicans’ cuts to unemployment insurance are worsening the news. “I am committed to doing all I can to ensure these workers get the support they need to get through this,” Boulton said. “That includes legislation to restore additional unemployment benefits that are needed when hundreds of workers are suddenly looking for work at the same time in the wake of a plant closure.”
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On strike in Southeast Iowa: Around 60 workers at Performance Pipe in Bloomfield (affiliated with the International Association of Machinists Local 1293) went on strike June 26. Workers say the company isn’t providing them a livable wage, is attacking work-life balance, and refusing to alleviate concerns around retirement.
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Iowa restaurants’ fines for violating federal child labor laws were “excessive,” Gov. Kim Reynolds and Iowa’s all-Republican congressional delegation protested in a letter sent to the US Labor Department (DOL) last week, after a few restaurants got hit with big fines for employing 14- and 15-year-olds unlawfully. (Not mentioned was the fact that the DOL warned Iowa Republicans to not loosen child labor laws.)
– A real Reynolds quote: “In today’s workforce, young workers help small businesses thrive.”
– The DOL responds: “No child should be working long hours, doing dangerous work, or be employed in unsafe conditions.”
– And the Iowa Federation of Labor adds, “It’s about time someone stands up for workers being treated unfairly.”
– A public roundtable discussing all of this will be held Tuesday at 4 p.m. at the IBEW 405 Union Hall in Cedar Rapids.
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As bird flu continues to spread at dairy cattle farms, with a fourth human case diagnosed in Colorado, it’s likely that many more dairy workers have gotten the virus because basically no one is testing for it at those farms.
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Why spend $100K when the fine’s only $7K? Marion real estate company Irish Capital Investments didn’t want to spend $100,000 to get rid of asbestos before it had workers demolish a Marion nursing home. And no wonder: The price of exposing workers to deadly lung diseases is apparently just $7,000 in Iowa.
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Voting on a union: 21 Bruegger’s Bagels workers in Coralville and Iowa City’s South Riverside location voted on whether to unionize yesterday night, after this “went to press.” I’ll get you those results in our next newsletter. Read more about how it happened here.
- Iowa layoffs coming up:
– Wells Fargo in West Des Moines is laying off 24 workers by Sunday, 26 workers by Aug. 11, and 10 workers by Aug. 25.
– FD Treats in Hawarden is closing and laying off 36 workers by July 19.
– Cygnus Home Services (Yelloh) is laying off eight workers in Cedar Falls, 16 workers in Des Moines, five workers in DeWitt, and five workers in Humboldt by July 27.
– Tyson Foods in Perry is still closing, but slowly: 32 workers will be laid off by July 27, another 32 workers by Aug. 24, and the remaining five workers by Sept. 28.
– Amcor in Des Moines is laying off one worker by Aug. 1, and nine workers by Sept. 1.
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Pharmacists working at large retail pharmacies, like CVS and Walgreens, have been fed up with their companies understaffing them, and giving them ridiculous quotas.
Now, there’s a new union, the Pharmacy Guild, and it’s slowly starting to unionize some of these stores. Read about that effort here.
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