1,000 W.V. Hospital Workers Strike to "Build Back Better"

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3. From the linked article

On the picket line last night, workers waved SEIU signs reading “Build Back Better.” Initially, unions had printed the signs for rallies to call on Senator Joe Manchin to support the “Build Back Better” reconciliation bill. However, some union members, who weren’t plugged into national politics, discovered the signs and thought they made a catchy slogan.

Workers feel that they deserve to “build back better” together from the collective trauma and pain that many strikers felt when working together in the hospital during the pandemic.

However, unlike other hospitals who used the federal CARES Act to give their workers bonuses and raises, Cabell Huntington Hospital, despite receiving $40 million in federal CARES Act dollars, did not. As a result, many health care workers left the hospital to work at other hospitals in the region where the pay was better. This led healthcare workers to face another understaffing situation.

But workers on the picket line in Huntington are determined to make their hospital better, to “build back better” together as a union. And Wednesday night on the picket line, the mood was electric with horns constantly blaring along Hal Greer Boulevard as workers screamed and waved their signs.