Red Cross Workers Blow The Whistle On Blood Safety
Tuesday, June 7, 2011(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)
Charging that the American Red Cross (ARC) is threatening blood
safety and violating workers’ rights, hundreds of nurses, donor collection
staff and labor allies rallied outside the ARC’s downtown office on E Street
NW at noon yesterday. The demonstrators circled the sidewalk for over an hour,
chanting “No justice, no peace!” as they blew air horns, thumped drums and
yelled “Shame!” through bullhorns. “I feel like the Red Cross is treating
us like a piece of gum on the street,” said Renee Conyers, a donor collection
worker and co-president of the Health Professionals and Allied Employees-AFT
Local 5103 in the Pennsylvania/New Jersey region. “They refuse to listen to
our concerns and even want us to give up our rights to collectively bargain.
It’s not right.” Over 240 workers in Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey
have been on strike since May 24 after a 13-hour negotiating session “failed
to produce a settlement that would ensure safe working conditions and safe
conditions for donors and the blood supply,” said Conyers. The union says that
across the country, the ARC is threatening blood safety through chronic safety
violations, understaffing at blood drives and unsafe conditions for donors and
workers. In addition to “repeated labor law violations” by the ARC, the union says that workers face low morale and high
turnover because of inadequate training, staffing shortages and unsafe working
conditions. “The Red Cross is viciously anti-union,” HPAE President Ann
Twomey told Union City. “Its national headquarters is even mandating at the
local level that we waive our right to collectively bargain for health
insurance. We need a fair contract. We want to do our work and we want to do it
safely.” AFT President Randi Weingarten – who called the ARC’s actions
“shocking and reprehensible” – commended the striking workers for
“blowing the whistle on blood safety.” Click here to sign a petition
supporting ARC workers and donor safety. – report/photos by
Adam Wright