|
Officials from the Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
Healthcare Illinois had threatened to call a strike on Labor
Day, but have since gone back to the bargaining table.
If talks break down, employees from 11 Infinity Healthcare
nursing facilities in northern Illinois will be ordered off the
job.
National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation Vice President
Patrick Semmens said workers don't have to walk off the job if
they choose not to.
“Oftentimes officials will imply that participating in a strike
is mandatory, but that is not actually true under federal law,”
Semmens told The Center Square.
Some union workers have complained about low wages, high
turnover rates and poor staffing at nursing home facilities.
The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation has issued a
special legal notice informing workers of their rights.
Semmens said in many cases, health care workers don’t want to
abandon their patients to join a picket line.
“Union bosses want to engage in a strike and see it as an
impactful move, but for nurses or nursing home facility
employees, they’re understandably reluctant to do that,
threatening the patients’ health,” Semmens said.
Nursing home workers from the same company went on strike for 12
days in 2020 during the heart of the COVID-19 pandemic.
|
|
