More than 75,000 nurses, pharmacists and other employees of the Kaiser Permanent health system walked off the job Wednesday in the largest U.S. healthcare strike in recent history, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The workers struck after contracts expired and their unions couldn't reach an agreement with Kaiser on how much a new deal would increase wages and staffing.
The Kaiser healthcare system serves 12.7 million members at 40 hospitals and more than 620 medical offices, mostly on the West Coast, but also in Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland and Virginia. Kaiser counts about 213,000 employees who aren't physicians.
To minimize the disruption for patients, Kaiser told the Journal it would bring on temporary workers to fill some vacancies, but would, if needed, postpone some appointments and expand its network to retail pharmacies and, for some people, non-Kaiser hospitals.
"Our plans ensure that the urgent needs of our members and patients are the top priority," Kaiser said.
The strike is scheduled to last as long as three days and is the latest union action to follow a summer packed with strikes.
Through August this year, the U.S. had lost more workdays to labor disputes than any full year since 2000. Unions emboldened by public support and the tight labor market are flexing their power to demand higher pay. Workers have also seen how strikes by other unions have secured contract wins.
U.S. Economy Adds 336,000 Jobs in September
The U.S. labor market added 336,000 jobs in September, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data released Friday, nearly twice than what was expected.
CNN reported it's the largest monthly employment gain since January and is significantly above August’s net gain of 227,000 jobs, which was revised up by 40,000 from initial estimates.
In September, leisure and hospitality helped drive job growth higher, with 96,000 jobs added. That’s above the pace of 61,000 jobs a month that this sector has seen during the past 12 months, according to the BLS report. Government jobs also saw a hefty boost, rising by 73,000.
The unemployment rate held steady at 3.8% in August, and the number of unemployed workers was essentially unchanged at 6.4 million.
“Today’s report was unequivocally strong,” Morgan Stanley chief U.S. economist Ellen Zentner wrote in a research note on Friday. “Too strong for policymakers to relax their tightening bias. Inflation has been decelerating faster than Fed forecasts, but continued strength in job gains will fuel doubts that the pace of deceleration in inflation will be sustained.”
Judge Affirms Pay Raise for Food Delivery Workers in New York
A judge said New York City regulators could move forward and raise minimum wages for app-based food delivery workers, ruling against three delivery giants that had challenged the rule, the New York Times reports.
The new minimum pay law, which is aimed at forcing tech companies to better compensate gig workers, will require the platforms to pay workers about $18 per hour at first, starting in October, and to increase that amount to $20 per hour by 2025. Delivery workers currently make about $11 an hour on average, according to the city's estimate.
Days before the increase was supposed to go into effect in July, the three companies, Uber, DoorDash and Grubhub, filed requests for temporary restraining orders in State Supreme Court in Manhattan to block it. Relay, a smaller, New York-based food delivery platform, did the same. The judge, Nicholas Moyne, paused the change while he deliberated.
On Thursday, he ruled against the three larger delivery companies and allowed the wage increase to go through, but said that Relay, which has a different business model, should be granted a preliminary injunction, enabling it to continue to challenge the increase.
"The petitioners have not demonstrated a likelihood of success on the merits" of their case, Justice Moyne wrote in his decision. It is possible that the three larger companies will appeal his ruling.
The food-delivery services argued they would be forced to pass on the cost of the higher wages to consumers by raising prices, adding that the city's modeling did not correctly calculate the degree to which higher prices would harm local restaurants. The companies also argued the system would work against drivers in that they would have to monitor delivery drivers' time spent on the app while not making deliveries in order to control costs.
Justice Moyne rejected the arguments and in his decision said that workers could still have flexible arrangements while earning a minimum wage.
"Higher compensation, including for on-call time, need not be mutually exclusive with worker flexibility, and it is not irrational to pursue both goals simultaneously," he wrote.
Walmart Changes Pay and Titles for Corporate Staff
Corporate staff at Walmart are getting new titles and pay packages in the coming weeks, as the country's largest private employer works to manage labor costs and simplify the structure of its workforce, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The company reportedly reviewed pay and titles for its entire U.S. corporate workforce over the past year and decided to pivot to a leaner model with fewer groups of possible titles and pay. Base pay and total bonus benefits won't fall for any workers. Around 4%, or 2,000 workers, will receive an eventual reduction in restricted stock awards as part of the change.
Employees who will have their restricted stock reduced will receive a one-time grant next year to make up for the immediate reduction in total compensation, but restricted stock awards will reset at a lower trajectory longer term, the Journal reports.
There are increases and reductions that will offset each other, so the plan keeps Walmart's corporate labor costs generally the same, Kim Lupo, head of global total rewards for Walmart told the Journal.
At Walmart, some workers affected by the restricted-stock cuts said it was disheartening but not a significant-enough change to send them looking for a new job immediately.
Walmart is making the changes because its corporate roles have become more varied over the past decade through acquisitions and new lines of business such as advertising, Lupo said. That evolution led to internal and external confusion about job responsibilities and fair pay, Lupo said.
The change is "good compensation hygiene," said Lupo, and ensures Walmart is "appropriately rewarding similar levels of work." It also keeps Walmart's job titles and pay structure logical and competitive for outside job candidates, she said.
Editor's Note: Additional Content
For more information and resources related to this article see the pages below, which offer quick access to all WorldatWork content on these topics:
