The more than 600 Providence St. Peter nursing assistants, dietary and housekeeping staff, sterile processors, and other service workers united in SEIU Healthcare 1199NW have won across-the-board wage increases, a $15/hour minimum, health benefit security, and staffing and quality improvements.  The improvements are part of a new contract which union members ratified overwhelmingly in votes this week.

More than 500 food service workers who were outsourced last year in a controversial decision by Mayo Clinic have reached a tentative agreement with their new employer, Morrison Healthcare, their union announced.

Standing with ponchos and umbrellas on a rainy corner in Streeterville today, workers at Northwestern Memorial Hospital demanded that the health system implement a minimum wage of $15 an hour. A group of employees represented by the Service Employees International Union Healthcare Illinois rallied alongside Chicago aldermen and community leaders. Currently, union employees start off at $11.50 an hour, according to SEIU Healthcare. The union represents 1,250 Northwestern employees, which include custodians, patient transport technicians, patient care technicians, dietary/food service and environmental service workers. The union's contract with the not-for-profit hospital expired on March 29th.

Workers in California's hospitals and doctors' offices may be less likely to get hit, kicked, bitten or grabbed under workplace standards adopted by a state workplace safety board. Regulators within the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health approved a rule last Thursday that would require hospitals and other employers of health professionals to develop violence prevention protocols and involve workers in the process. The standard now will be reviewed by the Office of Administrative Law, which proponents expect will approve the new rules. The earliest they could take effect would be January 2017.

The Service Employees International Union Healthcare Minnesota told the TV station food service workers and supporters will picket over the outsourcing decision Aug. 24 in front of Saint Marys hospital campus in Rochester. SEIU alleges Mayo has failed to provide basic information about how, why and when it made the decision to switch from Sodexo to Morrison Healthcare for food and nutrition services, according to the report.

The caregivers presented their "quality care" plan during the meeting, which included several recommendations to ensure the long-term success of UMC and its employees.

Members of Service Employees International Union Local 49 on Monday evening voted 533 to 11 to approve the contract, which covers 1,082 employees. SEIU officials called the contract “historic” because it covers the largest group of newly organized Oregon health care workers in nearly 20 years.

Workers at two major hospitals in Boston will ring in the new year with higher pay, according to their union. Boston Medical Center and Tufts Medical Center both agreed to pay their employees $15 an hour in 2016, the United Healthcare Workers Union said.

The Service Employees International Union signed an agreement that allows the union to seek to organize about 500 workers at Partners HealthCare’s hospital in Northampton. The deal with Partners applies to service and technical workers at Cooley Dickinson Hospital. It follows a similar accord at the Partners-owned Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital earlier this year, which led to 500 Faulkner employees joining the union.

The union that represents 3,000 workers at Allina Hospitals is trumpeting a three-year contract that it says for the first time establishes a $15 minimum wage. Allina, without commenting directly on the assertion by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), said Friday that it has agreed to a contract that pays 3.5 percent in wage increases over three years and that 97 percent of the affected workers already make at least $15 an hour.