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Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Nurses launch strike at Meriter hospital, the first in the facility's history
Striking nurses and supporters circle the UnityPoint Health-Meriter hospital in Madison on the first day of a five-day walkout Tuesday. (Photo by Erik Gunn/Wisconsin Examiner) With a spirited rally, a picket line march around the building and a small brass band, nurses at UnityPoint Health-Meriter hospital in Madison launched a five-day walkout Tuesday, reiterating their demands for changes in safety practices, minimum ratios of nurses to patients and improved pay. The strike — the first ever by nurses at Meriter hospital — is scheduled to run through Saturday. It follows the end of bargaining on Monday, May 19, when the nurses' union bargaining team turned down the hospital management's latest proposal. Services Employees International Union (SEIU) Wisconsin and UnityPoint Health-Meriter have been in negotiations since earlier this year on a new contract covering about 950 nurses. The nurses' most recent two-year agreement expired in late March and they have since been working without a contract. The nurses' contract demands include establishing required ratios of nurses to patients, improved safety for hospital employees and pay increases — particularly for senior nurses, according to union officials. 'Time and time again, Meriter's management refused to meet us halfway,' said nurse Lindsey Miller, one of three bargaining team members who spoke at the strike's opening-day rally Tuesday morning. 'At our last bargaining session, it was management, not nurses, who walked away from the bargaining table.' Miller said the most recent management officer included 'an unacceptable raise that doesn't cover the cost of living' and made 'no progress' towards the nurses' union's demands for staffing commitments or security improvements. 'I am striking because I love working here,' said Madison Vander Hill, a birthing center nurse and one of six union speakers at the rally. 'I love getting to walk alongside and care for families as they go through one of the most transformative experiences of their lives.' Vander Hill said she and other nurses were striking 'because we must see tangible change from management in order to ensure that safety and security are prioritized and the things we love about the work that we do are protected.' Her coworker, Audrey Willems Van Dijk, said the nurses' concerns extended to concerns for the hospital's patients. 'We are fighting for every single person who walks through Meriter's doors,' she said. 'Yes, we deserve adequate compensation, but more than that, we deserve safety and security for ourselves and our community. We deserve respect.' Dane County Executive Melissa Agard declared her support for the nurses and connected their dispute with former Gov. Scott Walker's signature legislation after he took office in 2011 — Act 10, stripping most public workers of most union rights. 'It was his mission to crack the foundation of union rights in the state of Wisconsin. And that crack has continued not only in Wisconsin but across our nation, and you guys are here to say, 'No more,'' Agard said. As the strike got underway this week, Meriter told nurses that health benefits — including health insurance — would be cut off as of June 1 for nurses who do not report for their first scheduled shift during the strike this week. A union spokesperson said the effect of the order would be to cut off benefits for strikers for the month of June if the two sides don't reach a tentative agreement on Thursday, when their next bargaining session is scheduled. Meriter spokesperson Nicole Aimone confirmed in an email message Tuesday that nurses who do not report for their first shift during the strike will be put on 'inactive status' through Sunday, June 1, with their benefits ending as of that date. Nurses whose benefits are cut off would have to use the federal law known as COBRA to maintain their coverage, paying for their insurance out of pocket. The law, enacted in the 1980s, enables fired or laid-off workers to maintain their employer's health insurance temporarily at their own cost. 'They will have the ability to re-enroll once they are placed back into active employee status,' Aimone said. The union has filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board over the hospital's action. 'It is outrageous and it is disgusting,' said Ben Wikler, the outgoing chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, addressing the rally. Wikler went on to lead hundreds of sign-carrying nurses and supporters in chanting, 'Union busting is disgusting!' 'When management says you'll lose your health insurance if you insist that there [should be] enough nurses on the floor to make sure that everyone is taken care of — it is disgusting,' Wikler said. He described the dispute in the larger context of President Donald Trump's return to the White House. 'They think that the Trump administration and the National Labor Relations Board that this administration has gotten is going to turn its back on working people,' Wikler said. 'They will still have to come back to the negotiating table and they will have to do what's right, because you are building the power to make them do what's right,' he added. The hospital is continuing to operate during the strike. Aimone said that the hospital has contracted with an outside agency for replacement 'travel nurses' to support ongoing patient care. She said she did not have information on the cost for the contract nurses who are filling in during the walkout. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Nurses plan 5-day strike at Meriter hospital in Madison as contract talks stall
Pat Raes, a Meriter hospital nurse and president of SEIU Wisconsin, addresses union nurses and their supporters at a rally April 8, 2025. On Tuesday the union announced it would strike starting May 27. (Photo by Erik Gunn/Wisconsin Examiner) Nurses at Madison's Meriter hospital plan to walk off the job for five days starting Tuesday, May 27, after negotiations on a new union contract ended Monday night without an agreement. The hospital management and Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Wisconsin, which represents about 950 nurses at the hospital, are divided over pay, security provisions and whether the hospital should commit to specific ratios of how many patients are under a nurse's care. The union and the hospital management have scheduled another bargaining session for Monday, May 26 — the day before the strike is scheduled to start. If the strike goes forward, it is scheduled to last for five days, with union members returning on Sunday, June 1. In order to allow hospitals to secure temporary replacement staff or move patients, federal law requires hospital workers to give at least 10 days notice before striking, which SEIU Wisconsin gave May 9. The union also opted for a fixed duration for the walkout. 'We don't take going on strike lightly, but we truly feel in order to make the changes that are necessary we're willing to fight to make things safe for our patients,' said Pat Raes, a long-time Meriter nurse and also president of SEIU Wisconsin, in an interview May 14. 'Nurses have been clear with Meriter management that we will strike for patient and staff safety, improved compensation to retain nurses, and staffing solutions that include the voices of bedside nurses who care for patients day in and day out,' declared a union statement issued Tuesday morning. 'Meriter is still not listening to the nurses.' The hospital, UnityPoint Health-Meriter, is one of 17 regional hospitals in the large, Iowa-centered nonprofit health care chain, UnityPoint Health. 'We've been in a union environment for decades and know that a strike could happen. We always work very, very hard to avoid that,' said Sherry Casali, market chief nursing officer for the hospital, in a statement released to the press Tuesday. 'I think both parties would prefer not to have a strike.' In past years, the union and the hospital have worked with federal mediators during contract talks. This year federal mediation wasn't available after President Donald Trump issued an executive order in March gutting the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS), nursesan independent federal agency. Although that order was blocked by a federal judge May 6, the union and hospital turned instead to the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission. Defined patient-nurse ratios have been a longtime goal for union nurses. California and Massachusetts both have state laws setting certain minimum ratios, according to A limited number of other states require hospitals to publish their nurse-to-staff ratios. 'The more patients you take care of once you get above that ratio puts every patient that you're taking care of at higher risk for complications and higher risk for mortality,' Raes said. The statement the hospital issued Tuesday acknowledged that 'both parties agree on the importance of safe and effective staffing,' but said that mandated ratios 'limit flexibility' and could make it more difficult 'to adjust to patient needs and staff availability in real time.' The hospital statement said the facility relies on its charge nurses, who 'are key to staffing and have clear avenues to discuss any patient care needs throughout each shift.' There are limits to flexibility, however, according to the members of the nursing staff. Flexibility 'sometimes works and sometimes doesn't,' said Amanda Husk, a postpartum nurse. 'We just know there's always a base need for nurses to make sure patients are safe.' Husk said ensuring that the ratio of nurses is always sufficient 'also prevents burnout and turnover of nurses. That's a big deal.' Raes said nurses also wanted stronger security measures — including metal detectors — in light of violent incidents at hospitals across the country that have led to injuries or deaths of health care workers. The hospital's statement said its security staff regularly updates security measures and plans additional unspecified changes this summer. On pay, Raes said that while nurses in their first 12 years have had significant raises, those at the upper end of the scale for pay and longevity don't see their pay keeping up. The shift to a 401(k) retirement plan from a standard pension has diminished the incentive for more experienced nurses to stick around, said Raes, while the original pension plan encouraged longevity on the job. Meriter's statement said the hospital's most recent pay offer would keep its nurses 'some of the best-paid nurses in Wisconsin' as well as in Madison. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Republicans favor expanding employer child care tax credit; providers skeptical
Corrine Hendrickson, child care provider and advocate, waits to speak at a rally in front of the state Capitol Tuesday, May 13. (Photo by Erik Gunn/Wisconsin Examiner) Republican lawmakers have filed a proposed bill expanding an existing state business development tax credit related to child care. Child care providers who want to see a permanent state investment in their work said the bill was an inadequate gesture. The state's current business tax credit for child care applies only to capital expenditures for an employee child care program. The proposed bill would expand that to include other costs, including operating a child care program for employees, reimbursing employees for child care costs and other costs related to child care benefits. 'These changes will increase the number of available child care slots and provide more options for families,' wrote Sen. Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green) and Rep. Karen Hurd (R-Withee) in a memo seeking cosponsors. 'While not a silver bullet, these changes are another step in the right direction to address the child care issue in Wisconsin.' Critics dismissed the measure as inadequate. In a press release Rep. Randy Udell (D-Fitchburg) sent out after the Assembly's floor session Tuesday, he noted that last week the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee 'shot down 612 budget items including $480 million in childcare funding, and they proposed a childcare tax credit in its place that would benefit corporations instead of childcare providers under threat of closure.' Shawn Phetteplace, national campaigns director for Main Street Alliance, sent a memo to lawmakers Tuesday also dismissing the proposal. 'Providing a 15% refundable business tax credit for businesses providing child care benefits will not appreciably increase access to child care for Wisconsin workers,' Phetteplace wrote. 'It will simply be another tax break for large corporations. A similar credit exists at the federal level, the 45F credit, which is widely regarded as not achieving the goal of increasing affordability and accessibility to childcare for employees.' Corrine Hendrickson, co-founder of Wisconsin Early Childhood Action Needed (WECAN), said at a Capitol rally Tuesday she would like to meet with Marklein, who cochairs the finance committee, as well as Rep. Mark Born (R-Beaver Dam) the other cochair. The business tax credit is refundable: The credit recipient receives the full value of the credit back from the state, even if it is more than what the recipient owes in taxes. Hendrickson criticized the lawmakers for 'refusing to do the same for our hard-working families with the child and dependent tax credit.' The state's child and dependent care tax credit for families, which was expanded in legislation enacted in March 2024, is not refundable. That effectively makes the tax credit worth much more to people with higher incomes than to those with lower incomes, as the Wisconsin Examiner has previously reported. 'We are not going to accept anything more that will entrench the wealthy and well connected into our system of having success in life,' Hendrickson said. Born issued a statement this week that declared Republicans were focusing on other alternatives to the proposal for $480 million in subsidies for child care providers. 'Legislative Republicans have consistently supported a targeted approach to helping families afford child care, build provider capacity, and support recruitment of child care professionals,' Born said. 'Parents are best equipped to make decisions about the needs of their children and Legislative Republicans are committed to providing parents with options, helping families directly make child care more affordable.' Born said the Legislature spends 'almost $1 billion' for child care. Hendrickson said that virtually all that money is from the federal government and simply passes through the state budget. Only about $24.4 million comes from the state as a required match. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Child care advocates organize stoppage to send message for funding
Children play at The Growing Tree child care center in New Glarus. (Photo by Erik Gunn/Wisconsin Examiner) For more than two years Wisconsin child care providers have been warning that failing to provide ongoing support will mean their fees will go up and their numbers shrink drastically. Starting Tuesday, some providers will try to give lawmakers and the public a taste of what that could look like — by staging a strike. Their goal is to persuade Republican leaders on the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee to commit to including in the state budget a significant child care support program. Gov. Tony Evers' proposed $480 million child care measure was among more than 600 items the committee removed on Thursday, May 8, from the draft budget Evers proposed for 2025-27. The motion to remove the items passed 12-3 with only Republican votes. 'We are demanding that the Joint Finance Committee guarantees they will put $480 million of state dollars back into the budget' for child care support, Corrine Hendrickson, a New Glarus child care provider and advocate, told the Wisconsin Examiner Monday. Until they get such a guarantee, some providers have decided to close their doors, Hendrickson said. Providers who intend to shut down their operations on Tuesday will go to the state Capitol for a press conference organized by Wisconsin Early Childhood Action Needed (WECAN), which Hendrickson cofounded. They plan to remain at the Capitol at least through the rest of this week, she said. 'The goal is that Republicans and Democrats will stop by and talk to us about our concerns,' Hendrickson said. She added she was hoping for 'a real conversation' about measures that child care providers favor as well as proffered solutions that they oppose — 'since they keep leaving us out of these conversations.' Hendrickson said Monday afternoon that about 100 participants — providers, child care workers and parents in support of their actions — were expected at the Capitol Tuesday. She said there was not a count yet of how many child care centers might close. Organizers have established a donation portal with Community Change Action to raise funds that will be used to offset lost wages for child care workers and providers who take part in the walkout, Hendrickson said. The action planned to start Tuesday follows events across Wisconsin Monday for 'A Day Without Child Care' —a national campaign to draw attention to the need for child care programs and their need for stronger financial resources. At a rally Monday morning in New Glarus, parents, state officials both elected and appointed, education leaders, local economic boosters and child care providers took turns championing the need for a state investment that would strengthen child care providers. 'Whether you're a parent, an employer, an educator or a policy advisor, child care affects each and every one of us and it touches our future as well,' Cortney Barry, director of the New Glarus Chamber of Commerce, said at the rally. 'The current system is not working, especially in small communities like ours. It's just stretched too thin. It's fragile, and it's scary to think just how close we are to a true crisis.' Secretary of State Sarah Godlewski said business leaders she met with in central Wisconsin last week told her that child care was a pressing need for them to be able to hire locally rather than going out of state, and that they could not find workers 'not because people don't want to work for [them] — they can't find a place to send their kids.' Democratic lawmakers and parents have since 2023 pushed to continue the monthly Child Care Counts support program that Wisconsin began with the help of federal money during the COVID-19 pandemic. The funds bolstered child care providers' revenues so they could raise wages without charging parents more for care. 'We lost 6,000 [child care] programs between 2010 and 2019,' Hendrickson said at the New Glarus rally. 'You know what stopped [the decline]? COVID — when we started getting money. All of the sudden we had more programs open at the end of the year than we had at the beginning of the year. It worked.' A proposal to continue Child Care Counts with state funds was stripped from Evers' 2023-25 budget, and the Legislature's Republican majority repeatedly rejected attempts to restore the funding. The Evers administration was able to continue a reduced support program, but that will end with the final payment to child care centers early this summer. That has escalated a campaign to keep the program going with state funds. In a state survey released in April 25% or more providers said they might close without continued support at the level Child Care Counts provided. Hendrickson said at the New Glarus rally 54% of providers in Green County in the survey expected to close after the state funding program ends. Half of providers will have to raise tuition, she said — including her family child care business, which cares for eight children. Even with fee increases totaling $50 a week phased in over the months of August and September to replace lost Child Care Counts revenue and higher expenses, 'I will still be taking a pay cut,' she added. Brooke Legler, the other WECAN cofounder and operator of The Growing Tree child care center in New Glarus, said shutting down to protest starting Tuesday is 'our last effort — it's the only thing we have as a community, as a profession, that we can say, like, 'No, I'm not going to subsidize the economy off of my pay, off of the teachers that work there.'' Other child care providers who took part in Monday's Day Without Child Care campaign across the state said they cannot shut down in protest this week, but they support providers who choose to do so. In Waupaca, Tracy Jensen, director of Sunny Day Child Care, used the day as a teach-in for parents. 'We were raising awareness about the true cost of child care and how important it is to have child care in our community,' Jensen told the Wisconsin Examiner. About 75 parents came through the center Monday, and Jensen said she plans to continue the opportunities for more such parent education through the week. Sunny Day is the largest center in Waupaca County, Jensen said, with a license for 292 children at one time. There are 350 families with children enrolled currently, and a waiting list of 70 families, she said. Jensen said that given the center's size it won't take part in the organized shut down. She said she told employees that if they want to go to Madison Tuesday to voice their concerns they can do so, and she has tried to organize staffing to make that possible. Tricia Peterson directs Future All Stars Academy in Juneau. On Monday she closed the center for a day and took 11 employees to an event in Waunakee, where providers, staff and parents rallied. Peterson won't close Future All Stars for the walkout starting Tuesday, however. 'I'm not in a position right now to do that,' she said, 'But I will say I will do everything I can in support of that.' The center's long-term future will depend on the state budget, however. 'I'm one of those centers that if funding doesn't come forward in June, we'll have to close,' Peterson said. She's already notified parents about that possibility. 'They understood where we were coming from,' Peterson said. 'We didn't have one parent complain.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Labor groups mark Workers Memorial Day to highlight workplace deaths
Simulated gravestones are arrayed in front of the Madison Labor Temple on Monday, April 28, 2025, to commemorate Workers Memorial Day. (Photo by Erik Gunn/Wisconsin Examiner) Some 112 Wisconsin workers died on the job in 2023, the AFL-CIO reported Monday as labor unions marked Workers Memorial Day to highlight workplace dangers. 'When a union is there at the workplace, injuries go down and lives are saved,' said Kevin Gundlach, president of the South Central Federation of Labor, representing union workers in Dane County and surrounding counties. Workers Memorial Day serves both to remember those who have lost their lives at work as well as 'fighting for the living' to have a safe workplace, Gundlach told the Wisconsin Examiner. The date, April 28, coincides with the anniversary of the date that the federal Occupational Safety and Health Act took effect 54 years ago. The AFL-CIO's analysis draws on 2023 job fatality, injury and illness data along with workplace safety regulation enforcement data for the 12 months ending Sept. 30, 2024. Of the 112 Wisconsin worker deaths in 2023, 15 were from assaults and other violent acts, 37 from transportation incidents, 17 from falls, 19 from exposures to harmful substances or environments, and 23 from 'contact with objects or equipment,' according to the AFL-CIO. 'Every worker in Wisconsin has the right to a safe job,' said Wisconsin AFL-CIO President Stephanie Bloomingdale. 'We need collective bargaining rights and strong unions for all to best ensure that safety concerns are adequately and timely addressed in the workplace.' Union groups around Wisconsin held events, including in Madison, Milwaukee, Eau Claire, La Crosse and Wausau. At the Madison event, people working in health care, construction, education and as state game wardens came out. There was also testimony on behalf of immigrant workers in the construction industry. 'Many of these workers are exploited and don't have a union,' Gundlach said. Recent attacks on migrants have made some 'fearful to speak up for workplace conditions.' The event also called attention to workplace violence as a danger, and the need for employers to address workplace safety issues. In its report, the AFL-CIO criticized the administration of President Donald Trump, which marks its first 100 days this week, for 'totally decimating the fabric of what makes government protections work for people through attacks on job safety, public health, union rights and the independence of federal agencies.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
