Two labor organizations, SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania (SEIU) and the Strategic Organizing Center (SOC), have lodged a public complaint with the Department of Justice (DOJ) alleging that the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) has wrongfully exercised its power as the largest private sector employer in Pennsylvania to “suppress workers’ wages and benefits, drastically increase their workloads, and prevent workers from exiting or improving these working conditions through a draconian system of mobility restrictions and widespread labor law violations that lock in sub-competitive pay and working conditions.” The 55-page complaint requests that the DOJ investigate and take action to halt the alleged conduct.
The complaint alleges that UPMC has pursued a series of mergers and subsequent reductions in capacity that have harmed competition in certain Pennsylvania labor and healthcare markets in violation of Section 2 of the Sherman Act. The complaint alleges that UPMC’s conduct prevents competition in labor and healthcare markets, resulting in the provision of lower quality healthcare services to consumers and poorer working conditions for UPMC employees. With respect to working conditions, the complaint cites to a wage study correlating increases in UPMC market share to decreases in wages of UPMC workers – specifically that wages at UPMC fell 30 to 57 cents per hour for every 10% increase in UPMC market share. It further alleges that UPMC maintains and enforces...
Hyderabad: BRS leader Aedla Sudhakar Reddy strongly criticised the statements of HYDRAA commissioner A.V. Ranganath regarding the status of Bathukammakunta. The official had claimed that the place...