https://themilitant.com/2020/02/08/seattle-hospital-workers-strike-for-patients-before-profits/
Seattle hospital workers strike for ‘patients before profits’
article
BY JOHN NAUBERT
AND EDWIN FRUIT
Vol. 84/No. 6
February 17, 2020
MILITANT/SCOTT BREEN Members of SEIU Healthcare 1199NW rally in Seattle
Jan. 29 during three-day walkout at Swedish-Providence hospitals
demanding increased
staffing for patient care and a wage raise. figure
Members of SEIU Healthcare 1199NW rally in Seattle Jan. 29 during
three-day walkout at Swedish-Providence hospitals demanding increased
staffing for patient
care and a wage raise.
MILITANT/SCOTT BREEN Members of SEIU Healthcare 1199NW rally in Seattle
Jan. 29 during three-day walkout at Swedish-Providence hospitals
demanding increased
staffing for patient care and a wage raise. figure end
SEATTLE — Some 8,000 workers represented by SEIU Healthcare 1199NW and
other unions went on strike against the Swedish-Providence hospital
system Jan.
28-30. Picket lines were set up 24 hours a day at seven facilities in
the greater Seattle area.
“Safe staffing is what we’re really fighting for, so we can provide the
highest quality care,” Lizette Vanunu, who started working for Swedish
as a nurse
in 1988, told the Intercept magazine. “The wage issue is secondary, but
we do need better wages so we can keep experienced people in our
institution.”
The union demanded a 23.25% raise in wages over four years while
hospital bosses only offered an 11.25% increase.
Some 250 workers enthusiastically picketed outside Swedish-Providence’s
largest facility Jan. 28, chanting “Safe staffing saves lives,”
“Patients before
profits” and “United for social justice.”
Among those marching in solidarity was Walmart worker Pat Scott,
carrying a sign, “Walmart workers support hospital workers” to an
enthusiastic response.
The following day over 1,000 hospital workers and supporters rallied at
Westlake Park, including members of the Teamsters, United Food and
Commercial Workers,
International Longshore Workers Union, Firefighters and the Musicians
union. Members of the SMART-TD rail workers union joined the picket line
at the Swedish
hospital in Edmonds.
On Jan. 31 workers marched together back to work, where hundreds were
barred from returning, as the bosses said they had hired thousands of
replacement
workers to cover that week. Swedish-Providence said it had spent at
least $11 million on the replacements.
SEIU members set up their picket line again, now carrying signs
explaining they were “Locked Out.”
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“Tell a devout Christian that his wife is cheating on him, or that frozen
yogurt can make a man invisible, and he is likely to require as much evidence
as anyone else, and to be persuaded only to the extent that you give it. Tell
him that the book he keeps by his bed was written by an invisible deity who
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― Sam Harris,
