US Healthcare workers demand better wages, claim cannot 'access medical facilities'

Hospital and healthcare workers across the US are launching protests and union drives in an attempt to get a hike in their wages and better working conditions, international media reported. Many protesters reportedly said that they are unable to access proper healthcare services despite working in the sector. 

To gain $15 minimum wage extend

In Chicago, the Service Employees International Union Healthcare Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Kansas (SEIU)  has reportedly launched campaigns in order to gain $15 minimum wage extend outside the city limits of Chicago. As per SEIU, there are around 50,000 low wage hospital workers throughout the Chicago metro area and only 20,000 out of them are represented by the union. 

LeChrisha Pearson, who is a certified nursing assistant for eight years at Chicago’s Mount Sinai hospital, was one of the 400 who organised a protest back in June 2019 and threatened another in November 2019  before winning a contract that states $15 an hour wages for all workers. Even after that, she works two to three jobs to make ends meet while working full time at the hospital, international media reported.

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Meanwhile, other hospital workers in Los Angeles are fighting against proposed cuts in their latest union contract with Valley Hospital Medical Center. According to the Culinary Union Local 226, which represents the workers in the hospital said that the authorities are planning to cut wages by $3 an hour, eliminate a guaranteed 40-hour workweek and health and pension benefits. 

International media reported that as part of an upcoming protest organised in Chicago area, four unionized hospitals will be fighting for new union contracts to address issues rampant throughout the hospital industry, including low pay, poor working conditions, unaffordable healthcare and inequities in hospital funding.

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