Bargaining (Page 12)

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In: Activism, Bargaining, Healthcare, Hospitals, Labor Unions, Nurses, Nursing

HEALTH CARE

Health Care Fraud Deconstructed:  Fraud and Patients Not the Problem  The bottom line is that there is already enough money in the system to more than adequately cover everybody, if we can eliminate the waste. To do so, we would have to kill a few golden geese. The owners of those geese will be unhappy and will fight tooth and nail, but the rest of us would be much better off.

Lapses at Big Drug Factories Add to Shortages and Dangers   Weevils floating in vials of heparin. Morphine cartridges that contain up to twice the labeled dose.
… Read more about: MNA Daily NewsScan, October 19, 2012: Who is really scamming the HC system?; Newborns at risk  »

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In: Activism, Bargaining, Healthcare, Hospitals, Labor Unions, Nurses, Nursing

HEALTH CARE

Hospital Lobbies to Save Exec Pay   A Peninsula ballot measure that would limit the pay of executives at El Camino Hospital faces its toughest opposition from the hospital, which has donated three-quarters of the campaign funds to defeat the proposal.

Two Huge Health Systems Plan to Merge   The boards of two leading Catholic health systems, Trinity Health and Catholic Health East, have announced plans to join forces in 2013.

 

LABOR NEWS

Corporate Profits Continue to Skyrocket.  What’s in your wallet?
… Read more about: MNA NewsScan, October 18, 2012: Lobby $$ spent to save hospital exec pay; Corp. profits skyrocket  »

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In: Bargaining, Healthcare, Hospitals, Labor Unions, National Nurses United, Nurses, Nursing

HEALTH CARE

The Big Spin:  Hospital Staffing Goes Under the Knife    Jan Rodolfo, Midwest director for National Nurses United, the country’s largest union of registered nurses, said profitable hospitals are behaving much like hospitals in dire financial straits. “Hospitals that are very profitable are still aggressively pursuing cost-cutting measures,” she said. “I think they see an opportunity right now to drive down costs and use the economic climate as the justification.”

Regulator Has Link to Firm Implicated in Meningitis Outbreak   The owners of New England Compounding Center, the Framingham company at the heart of a nationwide outbreak of fungal meningitis, also own a related pharmacy in Westborough, one of whose executives is a board member and former president of the state agency that regulates pharmacies.
… Read more about: MNA Daily NewsScan, October 11, 2012: Hospitals spin tales on staffing; Kodak hopes to bail on retiree benefits  »

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In: Activism, Bargaining, Healthcare, Hospitals, Labor Unions, National Nurses United, Nurses, Nursing

LABOR NEWS

Rich-Poor Gap Widens in United States  The 1.2 million households whose incomes put them in the top 1 percent of the U.S. saw their earnings increase 5.5 percent last year.  Earnings fell 1.7 percent for the 96 million households in the bottom 80 percent — those that made less than $101,583.

RN’s Declare Victory in VA System   By an overwhelming majority, nurses at VA medical centers across the country have ratified a national contract, a master agreement unprecedented in its protections of patient care standards and for strengthening the voice of RNs in the care of the nation’s veterans.
… Read more about: MNA Daily NewsScan, October 8, 2012: Wage Gap Widens; Union Victory for VA Nurses  »

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In: Activism, Bargaining, Healthcare, Hospitals, Labor Unions, Nurses, Nursing, Politics

HEALTH CARE

Presidential Debate Review  On Health Care, Two Visions with Their Own Sets of Facts.  If there was one area where Mitt Romney and President Obama sometimes seemed to inhabit parallel universes at their debate on Wednesday night — with separate sets of assumptions, beliefs and even facts — it was on the question of health care and government’s role in providing it.

NOTES ON NURSING

Another Study; More Proof Ratios Work   AHRQ:  State-Mandated Nurse Staffing Levels Alleviate Workloads, Leading to Lower Patient Mortality and Higher Nurse Satisfaction.  The legislation has increased nurse staffing levels and created more reasonable workloads for nurses in California hospitals, leading to fewer patient deaths and higher levels of job satisfaction than in other states without mandated staffing ratios.
… Read more about: MNA Daily NewsScan, October 4, 2012: Prime new evidence that ratios work  »

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In: Activism, Bargaining, Healthcare, Hospitals, Labor Unions, Nurses, Nursing, Politics, Right to Work

LABOR

Hundreds of nurses at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital in California are on strike after negotiations over their labor contract stalled.

The battle to curb labor’s political clout has moved from Wisconsin to California, where wealthy conservatives are championing a ballot measure that would bar unions from donating to candidates.

Nurses from Baystate Franklin Medical Center in Greenfield, MA, have a demonstration planned outside of the hospital’s Springfield location, on Wednesday. This will take place hours before the last negotiating session between management from their hospital and the Massachusetts Nurses Association.

The union representing 350 employees at Meadowlands Hospital Medical Center in New Jersey has filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board, seeking an injunction against the hospital to stop what it alleges are illegal activities.
… Read more about: MNA Daily NewsScan, Oct. 3, 2012 – CA Nurses on Strike; Banks Behaving Badly  »

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In: Activism, Bargaining, Healthcare, Hospitals, Labor Unions, Nurses, Nursing, Politics, Right to Work

Join nurses across the country TOMORROW (Oct. 2) as we visit politicians to advocate for The Robin Hood Tax. MNA RNs will be visiting John Kline’s office in Burnsville at 2:00 pm!

LABOR

[youtube=http://youtu.be/pxUWXuBqkSc]

Can You Hear Them Now? Minnesota Orchestra musicians speak out regarding their labor dispute with management.

In Massachusetts, Labor Unions are standing up to support Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren.

HEALTH CARE

As of Monday, Medicare will start fining hospitals that have too many patients readmitted within 30 days of discharge due to complications.
… Read more about: MNA Daily NewsScan, Oct. 1, 2012 – MN Orchestra Musicians Speak Out (Video)  »

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In: Activism, Bargaining, Healthcare, Hospitals, Labor Unions, Nurses, Nursing, Politics, Right to Work

 

LABOR

The French government presented a budget Friday that was heavy on taxes — including a controversial 75 percent income rate on high earners.

Nurses at two San Jose hospitals took to the sidewalk this week in a one-hour strike over contract negotiations.

After working without a contract for more than a year, about 750 registered nurses have reached a tentative agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement with Mills-Peninsula Health Services.

HEALTH CARE

Minnesota has received $42.5 million in its third federal grant to help design and develop a health insurance exchange.
… Read more about: MNA Daily NewsScan, Sept. 28, 2012 – MN Gets $42.5M for health exchange  »

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In: Activism, Bargaining, Healthcare, Hospitals, Labor Unions, Nurses, Nursing, Politics, Right to Work

 

Please join Wellstone Action on October 10, 2012, as they honor the lives and legacy of Paul and Sheila Wellstone, Marcia Wellstone Markuson, Tom Lapic, Mary McEvoy, and Will McLaughlin.

LABOR

In an appalling display of dangerous mismanagement, UMass Memorial Medical Center has announced yet another round of layoffs, the sixth in two years, despite posting a profit last year and aiming to post a $60 million surplus this year; all the while slashing staff and transforming UMMMC from the best staffed to the worst staffed hospital in the City of Worcester.
… Read more about: MNA Daily NewsScan, Sept. 27, 2012 – Hospital goes from “best staffed to worst staffed” in City  »

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In: Activism, Bargaining, Healthcare, Hospitals, Labor Unions, Nurses, Nursing, Politics, Right to Work

In a serious case of irony, Union-busting Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker took to Twitter early today demanding the return of the NFL’s unionized referees.

LABOR

From the AFL-CIO Blog: Crossing a picket line hurts everyone.

Also, today is National Voter Registration Day. Are you ready to have your voice heard?

HEALTH CARE

NNU’s Rose Ann DeMoro: The Robin Hood Campaign – A Movement, and Now Legislation, Too.

From Minnesota Public Radio: Rural Minnesota retools health care in wave of hospital mergers.
… Read more about: MNA Daily NewsScan, Sept. 25, 2012: Scott Walker Irony Alert in full effect  »