Registered nurses at Washington DC’s largest hospital, Medstar Washington Hospital Center reached a tentative agreement with hospital officials Monday on a new contract. The deal achieves significant patient care as well as economic improvements that nurses say will promote recruitment and retention. The four-year pact also protects RNs’ health coverage and retirement security. Monday’s settlement, in the first meeting between RNs and hospital management in seven months, ends a festering dispute that had included a one-day strike in December that was followed by a nine-day lockout. National Nurses Organizing Committee, an affiliate of National Nurses United, represents 1,900 RNs at MWHC. The RNs will hold membership meetings today and tomorrow to vote on the proposed contract.
Here’s today’s labor history: The House of Representatives approved the Taft-Hartley Act on this date in 1947. The legislation allows the president of the United States to intervene in labor disputes. President Truman vetoed the law but was overridden by Congress. In 1956, the AFL-CIO opened its new headquarters building on 16th Street, in view of the White House. And on this date in 1975, Governor Jerry Brown signed the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act, the first law in the U.S. giving farmworkers collective bargaining rights. The legislation came after years of effort by the United Farm Workers union. Today’s labor quote is by John L. Lewis: “The Taft-Hartley statute is the first ugly, savage thrust of Fascism in America. It came into being through an alliance between industrialists and the Republican majority in Congress, aided and abetted by those Democratic legislators who still believe in the institution of human slavery.” John L. Lewis served as president of the United Mine Workers of America from 1920 to 1960.
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