‘We can’t afford healthcare’: US hospital workers fight for higher wages

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/feb/17/hospital-healthcare-workers-unions-wages-conditions

Michael Sainato
Mon 17 Feb 2020 05.00 EST
Last modified on Mon 17 Feb 2020 05.03 EST

Hospital and healthcare workers across the US are launching union drives and organizing protests in order to win higher wages and better working conditions, saying their industry exploits them and leaves them often unable to afford healthcare, despite working in the sector.

In Chicago, the Service Employees International Union Healthcare Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Kansas (SEIU) is launching a campaign to organize hospital workers to ensure a $15 minimum wage extends to workers outside the city limits of Chicago, where the promise of such a rise has already been won.
The Americans forced into bankruptcy to pay for prescriptions
Read more

According to the SEIU, there are about 50,000 low-wage hospital workers throughout the Chicago metro area and about 10,000 are currently represented by the union.

•••••

“We work in the healthcare field, but we can’t afford the healthcare ourselves. It’s ridiculous. When we look at the staffing issues, they can work us, knowing we’re short-staffed, but they don’t care,” said Kimberly Smith, a patient care technician at Northwestern Memorial hospital, and a union chief steward.

She has recently received threats of a lawsuit due to an inability to pay for medical debt she accrued after an emergency room visit to the hospital where she has worked at for 16 years.

•••••

Bill Gentry has worked as an EMT and CNA for 23 years at Advocate Aurora Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, Illinois. Despite working at the hospital for over two decades and holding two certifications, he makes just $18 an hour with unaffordable health insurance, no retirement pension, and is forced to do work outside of his job scope.

“We’re answering phones and doing direct patient care as well. Our pay doesn’t reflect we do secretary work,” said Gentry. “We’re overworked and underpaid. You would think because we take care of people, our benefits would reflect that, but I’m currently on my wife’s insurance because I can’t afford the health insurance offered by the hospital.”

•••••