Red Cross Workers Blow The Whistle On Blood Safety

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)

Charging that the American Red Cross (ARC) is threatening blood safety and violating workers’ rights, hundreds of nurses, donor collection staff and labor allies rallied outside the ARC’s downtown office on E Street NW at noon yesterday. The demonstrators circled the sidewalk for over an hour, chanting “No justice, no peace!” as they blew air horns, thumped drums and yelled “Shame!” through bullhorns. “I feel like the Red Cross is treating us like a piece of gum on the street,” said Renee Conyers, a donor collection worker and co-president of the Health Professionals and Allied Employees-AFT Local 5103 in the Pennsylvania/New Jersey region. “They refuse to listen to our concerns and even want us to give up our rights to collectively bargain. It’s not right.” Over 240 workers in Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey have been on strike since May 24 after a 13-hour negotiating session “failed to produce a settlement that would ensure safe working conditions and safe conditions for donors and the blood supply,” said Conyers. The union says that across the country, the ARC is threatening blood safety through chronic safety violations, understaffing at blood drives and unsafe conditions for donors and workers. In addition to “repeated labor law violations” by the ARC, the union says that workers face low morale and high turnover because of inadequate training, staffing shortages and unsafe working conditions. “The Red Cross is viciously anti-union,” HPAE President Ann Twomey told Union City. “Its national headquarters is even mandating at the local level that we waive our right to collectively bargain for health insurance. We need a fair contract. We want to do our work and we want to do it safely.” AFT President Randi Weingarten – who called the ARC’s actions “shocking and reprehensible” – commended the striking workers for “blowing the whistle on blood safety.” Click here to sign a petition supporting ARC workers and donor safety. – report/photos by Adam Wright