Johns Hopkins nurses launch union drive

Some nurses at Johns Hopkins Hospital are working to form a union, claiming overwork and low pay contribute to high turnover — a situation ICU nurse Kate Phillips describes as “unsafe.” “When we don’t have a voice or a way to stand up to the administration, they can basically make all the decisions and they don’t look at things from the perspective of patient care like we do,” added Phillips.
The nurses, who reached out to NNU for help, need a majority of the hospital’s 3,200 nurses to sign interest cards in order to hold a union vote. Phillips and others had been organizing under the radar, but took their campaign public on Monday. Read more here.
Photo from a 2014 strike of mostly maintenance and service workers at Johns Hopkins Hospital, organized by 1199 SEIU. The strike secured a $15 wage for many senior workers. Credit: Rae Rawls/ In These Times

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