Dialysis workers take to the picket line (Poughkeepsie)

[struggle4progress]

Dozens of health care workers held a one-day strike Friday in front of the Hudson Plaza in the Town of Poughkeepsie in lieu of failed negotiations with their employer, Dutchess Dialysis Center.

The workers are members of SEIU Local 1199, a healthcare workers union.

Dialysis Center technician Mark Zuvic said the workers want to be treated fairly. “What we are asking for is fair wages, decent healthcare coverage and we are asking for a pension, which is what they have in their other units down in New York City and their other unit that they run in Middletown,” he said.

Zuvic claims the management, Fresenius Medical Care, is “more concerned with their bottom line than they are about patient care. You can’t even get these guys to buy a decent band aid. It’s just a small reflection of how they do things on a larger scale.” <snip>

http://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/DutDial_picket-02Apr05.htm

[Cooley Hurd]

1. Argh - a story like this one is why the Admins put this smiley in:

:dilemma:

While I'm pro-labor (of course), I have to wonder what dialysis patients did the day while the workers were on strike?:shrug:

[NC_Nurse]

2. As a healthcare worker, I can tell you

that getting screwed because of putting patients' needs ahead of our own is nothing new. It can't keep happening. That's why there's a nursing shortage now and unless things change it will only get worse.

[struggle4progress]

4. Hey!

Did you vote here yet?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=170x4094

[struggle4progress]

3. You may be certain that alternatives were made available to the patients.

[Medium Baby Jesus]

5. Bullshit

I was caught in a similar situation in NYC and the end result was a dead baby.

[struggle4progress]

6. 1199 has decades of experience organizing healthcare workers.

Monday, March 28, 2005
... Upset over the lack of a contact after two years of negotiations, the 50 members of SEIU Healthcare Workers 1199 union who work at Dutchess Dialysis Center in the Town of Poughkeepsie plan on striking for one day on April 1 ... By law, the workers had to notify the company 10 days in advance of the planned strike. Zuvic said they would not have planned the picket and left patients without the services ...
http://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/Dialysis_strike-28Mar05.htm