Labor Unions (Page 21)

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Health Care

Nurses Made the Difference:  You spoke up and helped deliver justice to patients.   Accretive Banned from Minnesota.    Accretive Health will be barred from operating in Minnesota for two to six years under a settlement agreement announced Monday by Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson.  The agreement ends a six-month legal battle in which Swanson had accused the Chicago consulting firm of deceiving patients, harassing them for money in emergency rooms and mishandling patient data at Fairview and North Memorial hospitals.  Related NY Times report.

Food-borne Illnesses Not Diminishing   Little progress has been made in combating many types of food-borne illnesses in recent years, according to new federal data, an outcome that food safety advocates say underscores the need to put into place the landmark food-safety bill signed by President Obama more than a year ago.
… Read more about: MNA Daily NewsScan, July 31, 2012: Accretive Banned; Nurse Burnout = More Patient Infections  »

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LABOR

Rich Get Richer: Minnesota’s CEOs saw their pay rise 26 percent in 2011.

HEALTH CARE

The Star Tribune’s Editorial Board weighs in again regarding the controversy over how much Minnesota health plans profit from the taxpayer-funded Medicaid program.
… Read more about: MNA Daily NewsScan, July 30, 2012 – Benefit Concert for Locked Out Sugar Workers, MN CEOs Get Big Raise  »

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LABOR

Mail Carriers Call For Financial Fix: More than 9,100 members of the National Association of Letter Carriers met in Minneapolis this week to discuss their union’s future.

HEALTH CARE

The state of Minnesota is expanding health care coverage to thousands of uninsured children. The new initiative, first approved by the Legislature in 2009 and finally implemented this month, will erase barriers such as waiting periods and monthly insurance premium payments for some 16,000 children from lower-income families across the state.

NPR: GOP Says Coverage For The Uninsured No Longer The Priority.
… Read more about: MNA Daily NewsScan, July 27, 2012 – Mail Carriers Meet in Minneapolis, More Minnesota Kids Get Health Care  »

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LABOR

Yesterday, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka joined 1,300 workers with the Bakery, Confectionery Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM), who have been locked out of five processing facilities and other facilities of American Crystal Sugar, in announcing that the AFL-CIO and BCTGM are escalating their campaign for fairness and justice at the company.

The lockout, which began on August 1, 2011, came in the midst of bargaining over a successor contract between American Crystal Sugar and five locals of BCTGM at various locations in Minnesota, North Dakota and Iowa. Trumka pledged the ongoing support and coordination of efforts with the BCTGM National in focusing on American Crystal Sugar’s total disregard for their employees.
… Read more about: MNA Daily NewsScan, July 26, 2012 – AFL-CIO Steps Up, Study Shows Medicaid’s Benefits  »

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NURSING

Although much attention focuses on filling physician spots, many hospitals increasingly are facing more vacancies in nurse positions. Nursing represented the biggest increase (40 percent) in job openings from Q1 to Q2, according to a brief issued today from recruiting firm HEALTHeCAREERS Network. Most nursing openings (90 percent) were looking for experienced nurses rather than entry-level nurses.

LABOR

Former U.S. Treasury insider Neil Barofsky tells all in a new book: “Washington abandoned Main Street while rescuing Wall Street. The suspicions that the system is rigged in favor of the largest banks and their elites, so they play by their own set of rules to the disfavor of the taxpayers who funded their bailout, are true.
… Read more about: MNA Daily NewsScan, July 25, 2012 – Insider Spills Secrets, More Nurses Needed in Workforce, AFL-CIO President Trumka in St. Paul to Make “Major Announcement”  »

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HEALTH CARE

Colorado State Senator: Nurses, Doctors and other heroes stepped in to save dozens of lives during tragic shooting.

Nurses from across the U.S. – including many from National Nurses United – will be joining others as they march through the streets of Washington DC today, demanding more funding for HIV/AIDS treatment.

The nation’s health insurers will pay out more than $1 billion in rebates over the coming days after many of them fell short of new standards that require them to spend a certain share of premiums on patient treatment.
… Read more about: MNA Daily NewsScan, July 24, 2012 – Nurses March in D.C.  »

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HEALTH CARE

Ask a Nurse? Or Google? Recent data shows that more than 130 million people go online every month to search for health-related information.

Led by National Nurses United, Maine Nurses are fighting a corporate healthcare entity’s effort to use patients as a profit center.

A young mom shares: How I lost my fear of Universal Healthcare.

LABOR

Union leaders representing employees of Hyatt Hotels are calling for a global boycott of the hotel chain they’ve been in a dispute with for years. 
… Read more about: MNA Daily NewsScan, July 23, 2012 – Google vs. Nurses, Don’t Stay at The Hilton!  »

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HEALTH CARE

Although about 60 percent of patient harm events occurred at hospitals in states with reporting systems, only 12 percent of the events met state requirements for reporting, according to new report from the Office of the Inspector General released today that looked at Medicare beneficiaries discharged in October 2008.

Survey: Medicare patients happier than those with private insurance coverage.

Most doctors work alone when caring for patients – a long tradition reinforced by the notion of a private doctor-patient relationship and by the way doctors are paid. But new efforts nationally and in Minnesota are trying to change that.
… Read more about: MNA Daily NewsScan, July 20, 2012 – “We Can End AIDS,” Medicare Patients Happier Than Those on Private Insurance  »

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LABOR NEWS

Join the Tweet-A-Thon!  Unions members throughout the nation are tweeting their legislators to pass a bill that will bring jobs home.  Call 888-659-9401 now and urge your senators to vote for the Bring Jobs Home Act to get the ball rolling to stop the destructive policies of outsourcing.  Learn more.

Thank a union   Mining Wages Outpace Other Private Sector Jobs      Mining jobs have become the best jobs in the region for most workers.

HEALTH CARE

Health Care Spending Slows in Minnesota   Health care spending in Minnesota rose just 2.2 percent in 2010 — the slowest annual growth rate since 1997, the Minnesota Department of Health reported Wednesday.
… Read more about: MNA Daily NewsScan, July 19, 2012: Bring jobs home, join the Tweet-a-thon; the July Effect;  »

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HEALTH CARE

Healthcare hiring continues to rise, at its strongest point since the middle of 2010, according to data from Health Workforce Solutions (HWS) released Friday.

Good read: Accretive Health’s peculiar view of hospitals sums up the hospital debt collector’s response to the ongoing investigation by Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson into mistreatment of Fairview patients: “These people are brats; they have no sense that they are guardians for an institution the world depends on; they have no consciousness of their larger social role.”

Please Don’t Forget About Our Northland Nurses in Need!
… Read more about: MNA Daily NewsScan, July 18, 2012 – Accretive’s “Peculiar View” of Hospitals  »