On the picket line

D.C. nurses locked out after one-day strike

The Washington Hospital Center showed how little it respects its registered nursing staff when it locked out 1,650 RNs after their one-day strike on March 4. More than 2,000 nurses, unionists and other supporters picketed the WHC that day. What’s at stake, says National Nurses United, is getting WHC to sign a contract with adequate staffing levels that ensure safe patient care. The nurses continued to picket the largest hospital in the District of Columbia until they went back to work on March 9. Meanwhile, they showed solidarity by joining the UNITE HERE Local 25 picket line at The Madison Hotel on March 7. Management’s claims that it can’t meet the nurses’ demands for fair wages and benefits were exposed when the March 11 Washington Post reported that WHC spent a total of $6 million on temporary nurses and extra security between March 4 and 8. Clearly, WHC was more intent on maintaining a hostile work environment for the RNs than in meeting their just demands.

Immigrant day laborers win lawsuit

Eight immigrant day laborers, whose arrest in 2006 was judged in a federal lawsuit to constitute racial profiling during an illegal police sting operation, will share a $650,000 settlement from the city of Danbury, Conn., and the federal government. Calling it the largest amount ever obtained by immigrant day laborers, Helen O’Reilly, a law student intern with the Workers and Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic at Yale University, told the March 10 New York Times, “The message that this sends is that if a city does what Danbury did, and they harass and target Latino day laborers, there are consequences and substantial costs.” The suit charged gross civil rights violations, including arrest without probable cause and violation of the workers’ right to show they were available for work.

U.Wis.-La Crosse faculty vote union

In the midst of the struggle to maintain collective bargaining rights that continues to unfold in Wisconsin, the faculty at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse voted 249 to 37 to join the American Federation of Teachers on Feb. 24. The 286 ballots cast represent an 87 percent turnout. Associate professor Darlene Lake told the La Cross Tribune that the struggle at the state Capitol “galvanized the faculty to push back.” Longtime AFT organizer and associate professor of biology Michael Abler noted that “the state battle ‘helped crystallize’ the issue on campus.” (March 1) Faculty at UW-L is the third UW faculty to unionize, joining AFT locals at UW-Eau Claire and UW-Superior.

Musicians’ strike continues in Detroit

The 23-week strike of musicians in the Detroit Symphony Orchestra continues, though the musicians offered to return to work immediately on March 1 if management would agree to submit all remaining unresolved issues — namely pay rates and work schedule — to binding arbitration. The March 8 Detroit Free Press reported that DSO’s management refused to accept that offer because the “arbitration panel might saddle the institution with a contract that included big salary and benefit increases in year three that the board would be unable to afford.” While it seems like management’s refusal to negotiate with workers — even those on the high end of the pay scale — is spreading like a virulent virus, union solidarity is also spreading. The American Federation of Musicians told the March 11 Free Press that nine orchestras across the country will wear bracelets during performances March 12-13 to show support for DSO musicians.