Fellow SEIU Healthcare Health Systems members,  

If you didn’t join our Tele-Town Hall Tuesday night, we hope to have you at the next one in July. On Tuesday, our amazing SEIU Healthcare members shared updates on the ongoing attacks against VA workers, news about our current campaigns at hospitals like Mt. Sinai and Ingalls, and information on our safe staffing fight. 

Keep reading for updates and links to everything we covered!

VA Updates

Our VA members are facing chaotic attacks from this administration, the most recent of which targets our Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) and claims that our contracts with Hines and JBVA are no longer in place. However, thanks to our members fighting back and standing united together, the VA is already backpedaling on it’s claims dismissing our CBA.

Last week, Secretary of the VA Doug Collins and the VA Central Office moved to implement the illegal Executive Order 14251. In doing so, they instructed Hines and JBVA Management to no longer honor our union agreements. As a result, Union Stewards have been removed from our union office and Official Time positions, and the Medical Center is no longer honoring our Grievance and Arbitration process.

However, it’s important to remember that even if they are attacking our CBA, we still have a union. Our union is not the contract—our union is YOU. Our union is the workers standing together to fight for our rights—and we will continue to act as a union so that we can fight back against these attacks.

Despite what Doug Collins and Trump would like you to believe, we still have rights as workers. Employees still have the right join and maintain their membership in a Union; employees still have the right to wear and display union buttons and t-shirts; employees still have the right to request a coworker or union steward to be present in any fact finding or investigatory meeting; and employees still have access to the EEO and MSPB process.

June 21 Congressional Town Hall

This past Saturday, our VA workers and allies took part in our Congressional Town Hall, where VA workers and veterans got the chance to share their stories with congressional representatives Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, Robyn Kelly, Raja Krishnamoorthi, and Bill Foster, and other elected officials including state Senator Robert Peters and Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss. 

Our VA members Tyra Morgan, Pat Guy, and Curtis Burch shared their stories and answered questions from elected officials about the impacts of Trump’s attacks on the VA on both workers and patients. They were accompanied on the panel by VA workers from NNU and AFGE; in addition to the elected officials listed above, Rep. Danny Davis sent a member of his staff and Rep. Delia Ramirez sent a video addressing our VA workers. 

We also used this opportunity to urge our congressional lawmakers to vote for the bipartisan Protect America’s Workforce Act, which would restore collective bargaining rights to federal workers across the country. 

We Are Fighting Back!

Our VA members are fighting back against federal attacks, and one of the best ways to start is to sign up for EZ Dues! Trump thought he was making us weaker when he attacked our automatic paycheck dues deductions, but our members have proved him wrong. If you have not signed up for EZ Dues yet, now is the perfect time!

We have also started circulating this petition for VA workers demanding that our elected officials support the Protect America’s Workforce act. Sign the digital petition and it will lead you to an email action to let your congresspeople know that you are counting on them to stand up for our VA!

We also recently won a legal battle in court when a judge passed an injunction that blocks the Trump administration from going through with their mass layoff and staff cuts plan. This at least temporarily protects our members from the RIFs that have been hanging over our heads all year, and it’s important that we keep fighting in court to keep achieving wins like this!

Safe Staffing Petition

We have just launched two state-wide petitions demanding safe staffing, in both Illinois and Indiana! Even though our safe staffing bill did not end up passing through Illinois’ legislative session in May, these petitions are just one way for our workers to continue to work towards our current goals in the safe staffing campaign, which include meeting with managers at individual hospitals about safe staffing and getting our elected officials to hold subject matter hearings on this issue. 

Our hospital workers who sign these petitions are speaking out against the dangers of short staffing, and demanding that bosses and lawmakers prioritize safe staffing! Sign now using the links below!

Organizing at Sinai and Ingalls

Mt. Sinai and Schwab workers are currently at the bargaining table, working hard to make sure workers get a contract with fair wages, good benefits, and protections for safe staffing (Sodexo workers will start bargaining July 17 as well). Sinai workers fought hard and secured funding for Mt. Sinai in Springfield this year- but Sinai is not fighting for its workers. Management claimed that there was not enough money to pay workers a raise, but they pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to their Board of Directors.

As a result of worker actions at the shop, management has moved away from their shameful $0 dollar raise proposal, but we are not stopping until we get the raises Sinai workers deserve! All Sinai, Schwab, and Sodexo staff can keep an eye out for information on our next open bargaining sessions. 

We are also standing together to fight for Ingalls union members, who are currently facing attacks from anti-union management and workers. These attacks are a result of our effectiveness. Anti-union groups are afraid of the power that workers have when we stand united and fight for our rights—which is exactly why we need to stand strong and continue to fight back against these attacks! 

If you are an Ingalls worker, join your organizer Lakesha Adams TODAY at 10 A.M. in the cafeteria to ask questions and discuss the attacks we are facing and how our union is fighting back against them. 

Advocate Hearing

Our members have been fighting for more and better options for healthcare in under resourced neighborhoods on our city’s South Side for years. Advocate became the first big health system to address our demand when they announced plans to spend $1 billion to expand access to care on the South Side. 

Advocate is now seeking permission to shutter the Trinity Hospital network that currently exists on the South Side and replace it with a newer, smaller facility with less beds and a larger focus on outpatient care. 

Our union supports Advocate’s decision to replace Trinity Hospital with a new facility supplemented by new outpatient care sites, but we want to make sure that the community still has an acute care hospital with service lines that meet community means. To ensure that our voices are heard, our members attended the June 24 HFSRB Board Meeting and offered testimonies on the importance of community input and acute care.

Past Events

On May 28, we invited VA workers and Health Systems and Home Care members in Rep. Mike Bost’s district to join us for a virtual town hall about politicians like Bost who are claiming to support veterans and VA workers, but continue to attack our VA union. 

Check out these videos of our panelists, Shaunta Osbourne and Henry Vega, as they discuss the effects of Bost and Collins’ attacks on VA workers and veterans.

SEIU HCII also joined ICIRR and other advocates to rally last Monday to support our communities that are being targeted by ICE and demand the release of our SEIU brother and President of SEIU California, David Huerta, from detention after he was violently arrested for peacefully observing an ICE raid.

Thankfully, David was released early last week, but this attack on was an attack on all workers and our movement— but we will not be scared into inaction. We are continuing to make sure our community members know their rights, and to fight to make sure all workers, regardless of citizenship status, are treated with respect, dignity, and care. 

Springfield Updates

Illinois legislative session just ended in May, and we are excited to share some of our campaign victories! We won important funding for safety net hospitals, through both general revenue funds and increased reimbursement rates. Safety net hospitals are often the only healthcare option that many of our community members have. A loss of funding would have been devastating, but our members phone banked, emailed, and lobbied in-person to protect our safety nets!

We also had another important win down in Springfield via our unionwide revenue campaign! This year Illinois faced a tight budget, due to cuts to federal funding— and this put all of our campaigns at risk. But our members came together as part of the Illinois Revenue Alliance for a progressive revenue campaign and we secured new revenue policies that will benefit working Illinoisans and make sure the rich are paying their fair share.

Thanks for staying updated – we appreciate your commitment and are looking forward to continuing our fight for hospital workers.