More than 300 nurses, radiology technicians, respiratory therapists and other workers are in the fourth week of their strike at Saint Michael’s Medical Center in Newark, New Jersey. They are demanding competitive wages, better health benefits and protection against “floating,” which is the practice of assigning nurses to any unit in the hospital even if they have not been trained to work in the new area. Similar demands have animated health care workers strikes nationally and internationally.
Saint Michael’s is owned by Prime Healthcare Services, a national corporation based in California. Last week, the workers roundly rejected the company’s “final” offer, which included 2.2 percent annual raises—a huge cut in real wages at a time when inflation has reached 8.6 percent. The offer also would have imposed a health insurance plan with high deductibles and required workers to have out-of-network physicians treat them on the premises of Saint Michael’s.
This offer, which workers rightly called insulting, shows Prime Healthcare’s priority is not to satisfy the needs of workers and patients but to slash costs and boost profits. It is consistent with the cutthroat business practices management has pursued throughout the company’s history. A review of this history is instructive for workers currently engaged in this battle.
Prime Healthcare runs 45 hospitals and more than 300 outpatient facilities in 14 states. It records more than 2.6 million patient visits per...
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