University officials say they will not drop out of the FLA, but will consider joining the Worker's Rights Consortium. The school's official human rights advisory board, the University Human Rights Committee, favors leaving the FLA.

There is a rising tide of activism on the part of U of I students, who have strong backing from the local labor movement. The massive anti-World Trade Organization protests in Seattle added fuel to the fire. The many events and protests here are part of the growing national movement that insists on breaking all ties with sweatshop labor.

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To top this off, the hospital administration is violating the contract by forcing RN's to stay home and be on call when they are not working at the hospital.

“The staff is emotionally and physically exhausted from the load of the overtime hours,” said Angela Wernke, an RN and worksite leader (steward) in Service Employees International Union, Local 150.

Wernke questions the quality of care that patients receive when the RN's are being overworked.

Hospital administrators recently put out an “informational memo” with the implied threat that RN's are in danger of losing their license if they refuse the mandatory overtime. The memo also said that the hospital would assign hours to nurses who did not sign up for them.

SEIU Local 150 is demanding a reduction in mandatory overtime as well as back pay for the time that members were on call at home.

Local 150 members are closely watching the arbitration that SEIU filed for to put an end to these abuses.

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The wages of many government workers are determined by the prevailing wage of people in the area doing similar work. The newly-active AFGE insisted that the survey of other hospitals be done correctly. The result was a bigger pay check for many workers.

Workers got their pay raises after the hospital administration got wind of Local 2547 plans to hold pickets and to line up Veterans groups behind their demands gave raises.

“It's a great victory,” said union steward Pat Kearns.

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The campaign has been endorsed by all the trade unions in Johnson County and has received support from many churches.

“I think it's a crime that we put public money into the pockets of a contractor and then they don't even pay a living wage to their employees,” said Pat Kearns, a steward with American Federation of Government Employees, Local 2547.

Employers have objected to paying a living wage on the grounds that they cannot afford it. If passed, the measure would mandate pay in the $9.00 to $11.00 range.

Responding to the employers claims, Kearns stated, “It might cut into their yachting expenses.”

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The struggle started approximately one year ago. A small group of nurses gathered together to select a union to represent their interests. Their primary goals were greater workplace control and a number of salary and health and safety concerns.

Nurses have been pressed hard over the last several years. Increasing work loads have made a hard job almost impossible. The risks of making a mistake increased, and with this, a greater risk of hurting patients. This was not acceptable for nurses at the University Hospitals and they organized to put a stop to it.

Nurses' pay had been frozen for almost five years while supervisors' and administrators' pay continued to rise ever higher. This too was unacceptable, and the nurses vowed to end it.

They selected SEIU to be their representative and began to organize their fellow nurses, pharmacists, physical therapists, respiratory therapists, dieticians and others. They created committees in each work area and actively spoke to each person to win their votes for the union.

The management actively organized to stop these workers from exercising their rights. They lied to workers about their rights, and spent tens of thousands of dollars on propaganda to defeat the union. They spent public money to hire union busters to come in to defeat the vote. They instructed supervisors to threaten workers at their work sites and harass union organizers.

“Hard organizing won out over fear,” said one nurse. “Every trick they pulled just made us madder and we worked that much harder.”

The workers won their drive to create a union on the first vote. After the management had spent thousands of dollars of the public's money to stop workers from exercising their rights, they won a great victory for all health care workers in the state of Iowa.

The management was not done with its dirty tricks, however. They tried to stonewall on contract talks and break the union with a bad agreement. They waited until the last minute before making a reasonable and honest offer to the union. They hoped to scare the union into a poor contract.

Hospital workers stood their ground and won not only a contract, but a contract that was a clear victory. The contract passed a vote by the membership by 95%. Workers won the right negotiate for better staffing to ensure that they and their patients are safe. They won increased pay, six percent over two years. They won holiday pay. They won the right for overtime for all workers. They defeated their fear and the threats of management and won a better workplace.

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