News of the Month — August 2021
Note: Some of these stories may require a subscription.
Republican Assemblymember Marie Waldron wrote a short op-ed in Patch supporting SB 221, our mental health parity legislation. Waldron is a co-sponsor of the bill.
NUHW was quoted in this Bloomberg story about vaccine mandates for healthcare workers.
NUHW member Kari Helgeson was quoted in the Eureka Times-Standard about how the COVID surge in Humboldt County is impacting her hospital and why everyone needs to get vaccinated.
NUHW was quoted in CalMatters and other outlets regarding California’s new vaccine mandate for healthcare workers.
Disney World will require vaccinations for many of its employees at the Florida-based theme park and resort after the company made a deal with two of its employees’ unions. The company recently reached an agreement with the Service Trades Council Union and the Actors Equity Association. The STCU is Disney’s largest union, representing more than 30,000 employees at the resort.
When demand for COVID testing dropped as the vaccine became widely available, Abbott Laboratories shuttered its plant that made rapid tests and destroyed its inventory, the New York Times reports. That has resulted in a shortage of tests as demand for testing continues to increase.
A California judge this month ruled that a 2020 ballot measure exempting rideshare and food delivery drivers from a state labor law is unconstitutional because it infringes on the Legislature’s power to set workplace standards. Alameda County Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch wrote Proposition 22 is unconstitutional because “it limits the power of a future Legislature to define app-based drivers as workers subject to workers’ compensation law.” That makes the entire ballot measure unenforceable, Roesch said.
Unionized workers who make Oreos, Chips Ahoy!, Newtons and other Nabisco snacks are on strike in five states over what they say are unfair demands for concessions in contract negotiations.