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8,000 Nurses and Caregivers Prepare to Strike for Fair Wages in Seattle While CEO Gets 157% Pay Increase
File this one under: absolutely not okay.
Nurses and caregivers have announced that they are moving closer toward an imminent strike at Swedish Medical Center, the largest healthcare provider in the Seattle area, saying that Providence needs to put patient safety before CEO pay.
Nurses and caregivers are raising alarms that patient care problems and severe understaffing have worsened since Swedish was taken over by the corporate giant Providence, Washington’s largest healthcare corporation which now controls over 1,000 facilities in seven states. Meanwhile, compensation for Providence’s CEO skyrocketed 157 percent to over $10.5 million in 2017. Providence raked in $24 billion in revenue in 2018, and $970 million in profits in just the first three quarters of 2019.
Supermajorities of caregivers have authorized strikes at each of the seven Swedish locations – First Hill, Cherry Hill, Ballard, Edmonds, Issaquah and ambulatory care centers in Redmond and Mill Creek – but management refused to make meaningful progress at the last contract negotiations on December 9.
If the strike occurs, members of SEIU Healthcare 1199NW at Swedish would be part of more than 13,000 total strikers at 13 Providence locations throughout the state, including members of UFCW 21 and the Washington State Nurses Association. This would be the largest healthcare strike in recent history.
Since April, Swedish-Providence nurses, nursing assistants, techs, lab workers, dietary workers, environmental service workers, clerks, social workers, and others have been proposing urgent solutions to Swedish-Providence executives. Contract proposals include: safe nurse-to-patient staffing ratios, affordable health benefits, expanded training opportunities, safeguards against racial discrimination on the job, and fair wages that recruit and retain qualified staff.
Executives have rejected almost all proposals, instead threatening steep cuts to caregivers’ sick time and repeatedly breaking federal labor law by violating caregivers’ rights.
“Being an emergency room nurse is very stressful, but I do this work because I love my patients and feel like I make a real difference in their lives,” said Whittney Powers, who works the 1 p.m. to 1 a.m. shift at Swedish Edmonds. “I’ve been alarmed to see a steep decline is staffing levels throughout our hospital and nurses are overextended. The safe staffing standard in emergency rooms is one nurse for every four patients, which should be followed at all times. But we are often required to care for five or six patients at a time, many of whom can be in severe distress.”
Powers added, “We often hear complaints from patients that they have to wait a long time for care or can’t get their pain medication in a timely manner. Because they’re also understaffed on the hospital floors, some patients have to stay for days in the emergency room hallways. One of the reasons we’re understaffed is that there’s been a mass exodus of employees because our wages aren’t keeping up with the cost of living. I pay $1,750 for a studio apartment in Seattle and struggle to make the rent. It’s frustrating that Swedish-Providence has the funds to improve patient safety and staffing, but instead they’re being misappropriated to huge executive pay packages. That makes us feel like patients and staff aren’t valued at Swedish.”
Multiple studies have proven that unsafe staffing levels in hospitals can lead to lower quality care and patient harm, including falls, medication errors and increased deaths. Recently, the Washington State Office of Administrative Hearings found that, in the Swedish First Hill Organ Transplant department, “The employer’s failure to respond to the severe staffing shortages and manager hostility and retaliation, all of which jeopardized patient health and staff health, shows a complete disregard for patient care and safety as well as a complete lack of regard for their own employees.”
In one example of worsening understaffing, 11,416 babies were born at Swedish in 2018, 2,000 more than in 2015. Yet, there are only three additional registered nurses in the labor and delivery department. In another example, Swedish had 1,571 patient beds in 2018, 145 more than in 2015. Despite this, Swedish only has one additional environmental service worker to clean and disinfect patient rooms.
“Sometimes environmental service techs can have 26 rooms to clean in an eight-hour shift, and this kind of pressure can lead to dirty rooms and the danger of infection being spread to patients,” said Angel Sherbourne, a certified healthcare environmental service technician who has worked at Swedish First Hill for over five years. “If we don’t have enough staffing, patient rooms can’t be cleaned and sanitized correctly, and workers get burned out, sick and injured. On top of that, we can’t afford to live in the communities where we work. My husband and I have been renting a small room for $850 a month, and struggling to buy a decent house that isn’t falling apart.”
In 2017, the neurosurgery department at Swedish Cherry Hill had a patient safety scandal severe enough to warrant concurrent FBI, U.S. Attorney General, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and Washington state Department of Health investigations. Despite Swedish-Providence’s public declaration to solve the crisis, management has since cut staff, including the system-wide elimination of the IV nurse team. It appears that the fundamental cause of the scandal, a focus on increasing profits instead of patient safety, is still infecting the corporate culture at Swedish-Providence.
Approximately 1,000 healthcare workers a year leave Swedish-Providence and there are currently about 900 vacant staff positions. 600 of those positions are registered nurses, and 50 percent of open positions have gone unfilled for 60 days or longer. One of the reasons that Swedish-Providence has difficulty with recruitment and retention is that wages for frontline workers are not keeping up with the soaring cost of living.
Swedish-Providence pays almost 40 percent of its employees below the salary necessary to afford the average one-bedroom apartment in the Seattle area.
Providence management has also broken federal labor law multiple times with unfair labor practices including: retaliating against and terminating employees for union activity; unlawfully surveilling employees; intimidating workers to stop them from speaking out; refusing to provide information necessary to bargain a fair contract; and refusing to bargain in good faith.
The next contract bargaining session with Swedish-Providence management is scheduled for December 30, and if executives do not make significant progress toward improving patient safety and staffing, caregivers say they will set the exact date of their strike shortly thereafter.
“I’ve been a Swedish nurse for 31 years, and I’ve stayed here this long because I’m deeply committed to fulfilling our stated mission of providing excellent patient care,” said Terry Thompson, who works in Swedish Ballard’s perioperative department. “But it’s close to impossible to offer the care our vulnerable patients need because we’re always rushing. Many new nurses go home crying because they feel they could have done better if they had a more manageable patient load. Decisions are being made by executives in corporate offices miles away, who rarely step foot in our hospital. Nurses and healthcare workers are here at the bedside and we must have a voice in setting safe staffing levels. These millionaire Providence executives need to look within and ask themselves if they’re going to do what’s right to protect patient care.”
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President-elect Donald Trump pledged to fast-track permits and tamp down regulations, including environmental, for any entity that wants to invest $1 billion or more in America, while offering no specifics or parameters, including how the federal government could arbitrarily overrule state and local laws.
“Any person or company investing ONE BILLION DOLLARS, OR MORE, in the United States of America, will receive fully expedited approvals and permits, including, but in no way limited to, all Environmental approvals. GET READY TO ROCK!!!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social website.
During the campaign, Trump told oil and gas executives and lobbyists at a closed-door Mar-a-Lago fundraiser that if they invested $1 billion in his campaign, he would scale back or remove environmental regulations.
READ MORE: ‘Swarm of MAGA Attacks’ Making Hegseth Confirmation Seem More Likely: Report
“Attendees included executives from ExxonMobil, EQT Corporation and the American Petroleum Institute, which lobbies for the oil industry,” The New York Times had reported in May. “The event was organized by the oil billionaire Harold Hamm, who has for years helped to shape Republican energy policies.”
Trump has announced his nominee for Secretary of the Interior will be North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum.
“Under the National Environmental Policy Act,” Forbes reports, “the federal government is required to conduct environmental reviews before approving energy production plans, infrastructure builds and other projects. How Trump will help investors get around regulations isn’t clear, but Trump has vowed to increase domestic production of oil and natural gas, projects that are often stymied or killed in the regulatory process.”
Critics blasted Trump’s statement.
314Action, which says it is “the only organization in the nation focused on recruiting, training, and electing Democrats with a background in science to public office,” wrote: “To tackle the climate crisis, Congress needs to pass and enforce bold, evidence-based legislation. However, Donald Trump doesn’t believe that billionaires should have to follow the law. In his world, they can pay-to-play and bypass crucial environmental protections. That’s why we’ll always fight to #ElectScientists who will fight back against his anti-science agenda and hold these bad actors accountable.”
“A government of oligarchs that will exist to solely serve the interests of oligarchs while distracting working people with culture wars. Foreign corporations & persons can loot & pollute the US and bypass regs that protect the health of Americans as long as they got lots of cash,” observed MeidasTouch editor-in-chief Ron Filipkowski.
Journalist David Leavitt asked, “How many animals will go extinct because of this? How much quicker will this hasten the destruction of our planet?”
READ MORE: Hegseth Successfully Gaslights on Women in ‘Combat’
Image via Shutterstock
The Secretary of Defense nomination of Pete Hegseth, the ex-Fox News weekend co-host under a cloud of allegations ranging from sexual assault and sexual harassment to abuse of alcohol to financial mismanagement of two charities, appears to have turned around after several media appearances, and the support from key Republican Senators, especially Joni Ernst, who is being subjected to a “swarm of MAGA attacks,” Politico reports.
Senator Ernst, a combat veteran who sits on the critical Armed Services Committee and initially appeared skeptical about Hegseth running the world’s largest and most lethal military, has opened the door to the possibility of giving him the thumbs up.
Ernst “previously said she wasn’t ready to back Hegseth. But after their second meeting on Monday, she said she’d be ‘supporting him through this process’ — though she would not say whether she would ultimately vote in favor of his confirmation,” ABC News reports.
Meanwhile, Politico reports Ernst’s possibly changed stance may have something to do with the extraordinary pressure she is receiving, thanks to Trump’s transition team and MAGA allies.
READ MORE: Hegseth Successfully Gaslights on Women in ‘Combat’
“In recent days, allies of Trump adopted an approach that is not novel for the president-elect and his followers: Make life extremely uncomfortable for anyone who dares to oppose him. The swarm of MAGA attacks that Sen. Joni Ernst has experienced is a warning of what’s in store for others who express skepticism of his personnel choices.”
Politico adds that “the palpable shift demonstrated how grassroots pressure, combined with the influence of Vice President-elect JD Vance, helped bolster Hegseth only days after Trump was drawing up contingency plans to tap Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis instead.”
“People in Trump’s orbit believed that if Hegseth’s nomination was ‘sacrificed’ to Ernst, it would become a ‘feeding frenzy’ with the president-elect’s other controversial picks.”
Senator Lindsey Graham, who served in the military for decades, on Tuesday appeared dismissive of the numerous allegations against Hegseth, claiming that they were made anonymously. He seemed prepared to afford the nominee the same civil rights as if he were being prosecuted and tried in a court of law, and not a presidential cabinet nominee to head the Pentagon, which has a budget of just under $1 trillion.
“The accusations are anonymous, the police report I’ve read uh, right now, he’s in pretty good shape,” Graham told CNN’s Manu Raju (video below). “I think he’s very smart, I actually was with him in Afghanistan what he’s doing is his duty, I was over there very briefly as a reservist. So, the accusations about mismanaging money and about, um, nonconsensual behavior, if they come forward, I will listen to those accusations, but they have to be credible and they have to be presented in a fashion that Pete can rebut.”
READ MORE: ‘USA Is a Threat’: Canadians Slam ‘Bully’ Trump’s ‘Arrogant’ Mockery of ‘Governor Trudeau’
“So he’s much better off this week than he was last week,” Graham said.
Raju reports there currently are no GOP Senators who have said publicly they absolutely will not vote for Hegseth.
But Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal “says a number of his GOP colleagues are opposed to Pete Hegseth’s nomination to be Defense Secretary,” reports CBS News Congressional Correspondent Scott MacFarlane. “But he says GOP colleagues might still vote for Hegseth because ‘Trump is a bully and a tyrant.'”
Watch below or at this link.
Lindsey Graham, who said last week that Pete Hegseth would have a “difficult” time, says: “Right now, he’s in pretty good shape.”
He said he would “listen to those accusations” about alleged misconduct if “if they come forward…but they have to be credible.” pic.twitter.com/fKuWMLK9xO— Manu Raju (@mkraju) December 10, 2024
READ MORE: ‘I Love His Charisma’: Republican Lauds ‘Man of Integrity’ Hegseth Who Will ‘Get Rid of DEI’
Image via Reuters
Overnight, President-elect Donald Trump continued his verbal assaults on Canada, America’s largest trading partner and a top defense partner, by calling Prime Minister Justin Trudeau the “Governor” of the “Great State of Canada.” Some Canadians are striking back.
After the November election, Trump announced that one of his first actions would be to impose massive tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China. The President of Mexico fought Trump in the press, explaining that his border demands were nonsensical since Mexico was already doing what he was calling for.
But Prime Minister Trudeau decided to fly down to Mar-a-Lago to negotiate with Trump—who is not yet President—and by doing so, some claim, gave Trump the upper hand.
“It was a pleasure to have dinner the other night with Governor Justin Trudeau of the Great State of Canada,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social website at 12:06 AM Tuesday. “I look forward to seeing the Governor again soon so that we may continue our in depth talks on Tariffs and Trade, the results of which will be truly spectacular for all!”
READ MORE: ‘I Love His Charisma’: Republican Lauds ‘Man of Integrity’ Hegseth Who Will ‘Get Rid of DEI’
During their Mar-a-Lago meeting, Trump reportedly mocked Trudeau to his face with his “51st state” trolling, according to Fox News.
🔥 PETER DOOCY: “Tonight, we’re getting new details about that Trump-Trudeau dinner from two people who were at the table. We are told that when @JustinTrudeau told President-elect Trump that new tarrifs would kill the Canadian economy, Trump joked to him that if Canada can’t… pic.twitter.com/eAYNJL6SCq
— TV News Now (@TVNewsNow) December 2, 2024
Trump’s midnight move followed Prime Minister Trudeau saying on Monday that Americans “are beginning to wake up to the real reality that tariffs on everything from Canada would make life a lot more expensive,” The Associated Press reported. Trudeau also threatened to retaliate.
Trudeau warned that Trump’s tariffs would “mean real hardship for Americans,” who “import 65% of their crude oil from Canada, [and] significant amounts of electricity. Just about all the natural gas exported from Canada goes to the United States. They rely on us for steel and aluminum. They rely on us for a range of agriculture imports. All of those things would get more expensive.”
Trump last week promoted what appeared to be an AI-generated image of him standing in snow looking out at what was supposedly Canada but was reportedly the Matterhorn, the mountain that borders Switzerland and Italy.
So Trump is in Switzerland, looking at the Matterhorn and thinking about Canada.
That’s nice. pic.twitter.com/sYeLAlUx79
— Canadians For Trudeau 🇨🇦 (@donmorrison063) December 3, 2024
On Sunday Trump falsely claimed on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that America is “subsidizing Canada to the tune of over $100 billion.” He appeared to be referring to the U.S. trade deficit with Canada, which is not “over $100 billion.” In 2023, it was $67.9 billion. The U.S. economy is about ten times that of Canada, and the U.S. population is about eight times that of Canada.
READ MORE: ‘You Have to’: Trump Confirms Plan to Deport US Citizens With Undocumented Parents
“If we’re going to subsidize them, let them become a state,” Trump angrily declared.
Trump: We’re subsidizing Canada to the tune of over 100 billion a year. We’re subsidizing Mexico to almost $300 billion. If we’re going to subsidize them, let them become a state pic.twitter.com/zTR1xI7Y3e
— Acyn (@Acyn) December 8, 2024
Some in the U.S. suggested Trudeau meeting with Trump may not have been the best move.
“Trudeau running down to Mar-a-Lago right after Trump posted his tariff threat was a huge mistake. Now Trump thinks he owns him. Amazing after all this time so many people still have no clue how to deal with him,” noted MeidasTouch editor-in-chief Ron Filipkowski.
Prime Minister Trudeau “hopping on a flight to mar a lago on back of us tariff threat (correctly) perceived as weakness by president-elect trump,” noted Ian Bremmer, founder of the political risk research and consulting firm Eurasia Group. He added that Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum “has handled this better.”
But critics in the U.S. and Canada are blasting the President-elect.
“Trump’s ‘great state of Canada’ would have cast 20 Senate votes to convict him at his 2021 impeachment trial,” wrote The Atlantic’s David Frum, a former Bush 43 White House speechwriter who reportedly coined the term “axis of evil.”
“Perhaps Trump doesn’t realize that annexing Canada would be handing Democrats control of the House, Senate, and White House … ?” observed The New Yorker’s Susan Glasser.
“Disrespectful trolling of Canada and other countries around the world by Trump is a feature of who the man is, not a bug. The world is an unstable and dangerous enough place,” warned Bruce Anderson, a Canadian pollster and political commentator.
Canadian pundit Laura Babcock also issued a warning, writing, “FFS this is EXACTLY what I warned about on radio: Trump has a proven process of signalling, mocking and normalizing preposterous ideas (Manifest Destiny in this case) so he can weaken resistance to them! It’s how he destroys norms. We need to fight back early and often Canada.”
Former Cabinet Minister and Deputy Premier of Alberta, Canada, Thomas Lukaszuk added, “Referring to Canada as US state and to our Prime Minister as Governor must concern us all. This arogant passive aggressive language shows Trump has no respect for Canada’s sovereignty and the integrity of our borders. Such language is dangerous and can’t be tolerated.”
Canadian journalist Geoffrey Johnston slammed “ignorant bully” Trump, writing, “Canada will never join USA. Time for Canadians to stop thinking of USA as a friend. Under Trump, USA is a threat to Canada’s economy & sovereignty. Most Canadians prefer our cooperative ways to American private medicine, gun violence, & imperialism.”
See the videos and social media posts above or at this link.
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Image via Reuters
‘USA Is a Threat’: Canadians Slam ‘Bully’ Trump’s ‘Arrogant’ Mockery of ‘Governor Trudeau’
Hegseth Successfully Gaslights on Women in ‘Combat’
‘Swarm of MAGA Attacks’ Making Hegseth Confirmation Seem More Likely: Report
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Hegseth Successfully Gaslights on Women in ‘Combat’
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