HCA/Riverside strike

21 Jul 2006

Amidst various swirling rumors of the buyout/non-buyout, HCA is facing trouble on the labor front. Thousands of HCA workers are threatening a strike if talks don’t progress:

“My coworkers and I never wanted to strike, but we will if we need to.
Our patients are suffering because of the poor working conditions at
HCA/Riverside Community Hospital. I am willing to walk a picket line for an
industry standard contract that allows me to provide safe, quality care for
my patients. My coworkers and I will not settle for anything less,” said
Russell Main, a Respiratory Therapist at HCA/Riverside Community Hospital.

Coincidentally, Kevin Carson just addressed the health industry in his recent post about professionalism:

Professionalism undermines the separation of work and home. Throughout the entire service sector, increasingly, low-paid wage workers are expected to think of their job as a calling, and of customer service as something to sacrifice “ownlife” for. In nursing, an occupation that fell under the spell of professionalism long ago, this is old news. For all of living memory, hospital managements have cynically manipulated nurses’ concern for their patients to guilt them into working unwanted overtime. This is often done, deliberately, in preference to hiring enough staff to avoid overtime, because it economizes on the costs of benefits.