Labor & Employment Law

Red Cross Workers Strike over Stalled Talks, Blood Safety Concerns

By Mike Hall

More than 1,000 Red Cross workers in seven cities launched a three-day unfair labor practice strike against the American Red Cross this morning. Contract negotiations between the Red Cross and the workers?members of several unions?have been stalled, in some cases, for more than a year.

One of the key issues, the unions say, is blood drive staffing practices that workers believe are key to protecting donor and blood safety. Workers say the Red Cross is putting donors and workers at risk by understaffing blood drives, replacing nurses with unlicensed supervisors, forcing employees to work unrealistic schedules and turning blood collection into an assembly line/fast-food process.

Phlebotomist Christine Holschlag, president of AFSCME Local 3145 in Farmington, Conn., where some 200 workers are on the picket lines, says:

The people who screen donors and handle the blood play a critical role in making sure that America’s blood supply is safe. That’s one of the reasons why we’re putting our jobs on the line?to ensure that working conditions at American Red Cross promote donor safety and reduce blood safety errors on the job.

For 17 years, American Red Cross has operated under a federal consent decree that requires it to clean up its blood safety practices. Since 2003, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has fined the Red Cross $21 million for blood safety violations.

Last month at a news conference highlighting the workers and health care advocates’ concerns about Red Cross blood safety, AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker said:

Red Cross employees know best what is going on with blood drives and safety. They believe there is a clear link between bad American Red Cross labor policies and blood safety compliance failures. This includes understaffing blood drives, assigning workers to regular 14-hour days, and eliminating the most experienced licensed medical personnel, creating a low-morale, high-turnover work environment.

The unions and cites where the strikes are under way are:

• AFSCME Local 3145, Hartford and Farmington, Conn.;
• Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 1122, Buffalo, N.Y.;
• Office and Professional Employees (OPEIU) Local 459 and Teamsters Local 580, Lansing and Detroit, Mich.;
• United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 75, Toledo, Ohio;
• United Steelworkers (USW) Local 254, Macon, Ga.;
• SEIU Local 1199, Huntington, W.Va., and SEIU Local 721, Los Angeles.

For more information and to take action supporting the workers, visit the Workers Committee for Blood Safety here and sign a petition calling for improvements in Red Cross blood safety here.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on June 02, 2010 (boomark / email).