News of the Week: Jan. 18-25

NewsJanuary 25, 2018

Each week we share articles on subjects that are important to NUHW and its members. Here are several must-read stories over the past week:

OC Weekly wrote about our upcoming strike at Fountain Valley Regional Hospital. The striking workers are employed by Sodexo, multi-billion dollar outsourcing firm that pays workers several of them collect bottles and cans to help make ends meet.

The Trump Administration has created a new “civil rights” division inside the Department of Health and Human Services that will defend healthcare workers who choose not to do their jobs based on “religious or moral” reasons. The division opens the door to caregivers refusing to participate in procedures such as abortion or care for transgender patients. Click here for a news report that featured NUHW’s response to Trump’s action.

The NLRB’s new Trump-appointed General Counsel wants to limit the authority of regional directors, Bloomberg reports. These regional directors currently have the power to issue complaints and dismissals of unfair labor practice cases, and they can render decisions in union representation cases.

NUHW has 12 members who work at one of San Francisco’s only subsidized residential care centers for Alzheimer’s patients. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Sutter is shutting down the center by the end of 2018, prompting worry among family members, caregivers and officials about the dwindling availability of affordable care for dementia patients in an aging city.

Several local police agencies say they likely won’t assist in Bay Area immigrant dragnet that could result in the detention of 1,500 undocumented immigrants, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Oakland won’t even let its cops do traffic control for ICE agents.