Labor group seeks rehiring of workers at 5 Wal-Mart stores - Yahoo News

 

YORK (AP) — A union is asking labor regulators to go to court to force Wal-Mart to rehire all 2,200 employees affected by the abrupt temporary closing of five stores a week ago.

The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union filed the charge with the National Labor Relations Board on Monday, arguing the closings were retaliation for labor activism. Wal-Mart says it closed the stores to fix plumbing issues.

One affected store, in Pico Rivera, California, has been a hotbed for worker protests against Wal-Mart. It was the first store to wage such protests, in October 2012. The other stores are in Midland and Livingston, Texas; Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Brandon, Florida.

The food and commercial workers union made its filing on behalf of OUR Wal-Mart, a group of Wal-Mart employees that it backs that has pushed for better pay and working conditions.

"This is a new low, even for Wal-Mart," Venanzi Luna, an eight-year Wal-Mart worker and member of OUR Walmart, said in a statement. "Through OUR Wal-Mart, we're going to keep fighting back until the company gives us our jobs back."

Wal-Mart said in a statement that it does not believe there is any basis for an injunction.

"As we have said all along, these stores were closed temporarily so we could fix the ongoing plumbing issues and it would be unfortunate if this outside group attempts to slow this process down for our associates and customers," the company said.

The stores will remain shuttered for up to six months, Wal-Mart spokesman Lorenzo Lopez said. The company has said that the workers would be put on paid leave for two months and it would look to transfer some to nearby stores.

Lopez did acknowledge that it was atypical for Wal-Mart to temporarily close stores for plumbing issues but said the company wanted to improve the customer experience.

"We understand this decision has been difficult on our associates and our customers and we aim to reopen these stores as soon as these issues are resolved and improvements are made," Wal-Mart said in a statement.

Lopez noted that the stores have had between 100 and 140 service calls for plumbing issues, the highest incidence of plumbing issues in its 4,500 stores.

Wal-Mart emailed to The Associated Press excerpts from documents that highlighted issues at the Pico Rivera store that included incidents of leaky toilets and water flowing to the back room and onto the sales floor under egg coolers. It also cited clogged floor drains in the deli. Those incidents, said Lopez, were part of the reason why the Pico Rivera deli was downgraded by the Health Department to a "B'' rating, causing a temporary closing of the department.

He also said the retailer would look to make other updates to the stores. Lopez said the company has not filed any local construction permits because it still is assessing what needs to be done.

The worker group wants the labor board to seek a court injunction, which can be quicker than typical NLRB proceedings, the group said.

Wal-Mart has gotten itself in trouble for similar actions. In June 2014, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled that Wal-Mart had violated labor laws when it closed a store in Quebec. The employees in that location had voted to join a union. That made it the first unionized store in North America just before the store was closed.

Wal-Mart has been making moves to increase pay for its workers. The company announced in February that it was increasing the minimum wage it pays its hourly workers to at least $9 this month and to at least $10 in February 2016. The federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour

Labor group seeks rehiring of workers at 5 Wal-Mart stores - Yahoo News

Few Chicago-area hospitals shine in government's new patient star ratings - Chicago Tribune

 

he federal government has adopted a new patient satisfaction metric to rate the nation's hospitals, awarding each institution one to five stars after synthesizing the responses to consumer surveys.

In Illinois, the Chicago area stood out for having some of the lowest-rated hospitals — six received just one star — along with a handful of highly rated facilities that have focused on making hospital visits less unpleasant.

Of the 65 hospitals rated in Cook and the collar counties, just one received the top score of five stars: Midwestern Regional Medical Center, a cancer treatment center in Zion. Fourteen received four stars, according to Medicare data posted Thursday to the federal Hospital Compare site.

The searchable data base is available by clicking on the following:  http://www.chicagotribune.com/chi-how-patients-rate-illinois-hospitals-20150416-htmlstory.html

The ratings are based on 11 facets of patients' hospital experiences as ranked in post-visit surveys, including how well doctors and nurses communicated, how well patients believed their pain was addressed and whether they would recommend the hospital to others.

Hospitals that performed well said their success came from listening to patients' complaints. They reduced wait times, encouraged patients to ask questions and resolved billing issues at bedside rather than during checkout. Some have taken less obvious steps; Midwestern Regional has a gym where patients and their families can exercise, as well as a Labradoodle named Tori that plays catch with patients.

Officials at low-ranking hospitals said a rating of one to five stars does not adequately capture the complexities of administering care, especially at facilities that see many low-income patients who often have chronic conditions.

 

"Rating hospitals is more complicated than judging a restaurant or hotel with star ratings," said William Dorsey, CEO of Jackson Park Hospital in Chicago, which received one star.

In assigning the ratings, Medicare compared hospitals against each other, essentially grading on a curve. The website notes that "a 1-star rating does not mean that you will receive poor care from a hospital" and that "we suggest that you use the star rating along with other quality information when making decisions about choosing a hospital."

Many in the hospital industry fear Medicare's five-star scale places too much weight on patient reviews, which are just one measure of hospital quality. Medicare also reports on other aspects of hospital care, such as how many patients died or contracted infections during their stay, but those factors are not yet associated with star ratings.

"Health care is fairly complex, and to try to capture the complexity of health care in one set of star ratings causes us to have pause," said Dr. Jay Bhatt, the Illinois Hospital Association's chief health officer. "We need to think about that in the context of other factors."

In Illinois overall, 13 of 147 rated hospitals received five stars, 62 received four stars, 50 got three stars and 16 got two stars….

Read the entire article by clicking on the following;  Few Chicago-area hospitals shine in government's new patient star ratings - Chicago Tribune

Rauner Trying To Broker Mega-Deal In Illinois Legislature « CBS Chicago

 

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Seizing on Illinois’ budget crisis as a political opportunity, Republican businessman-turned-governor Bruce Rauner is trying to broker a master deal to advance his pro-business priorities through the Legislature in exchange for new revenue to save programs near and dear to the Democrats.

Democratic leaders who control the General Assembly say they’re willing to negotiate, and talks with Republicans could begin in the next week. But they caution that some of Rauner’s proposals are non-starters.

Rauner has been heavily promoting structural changes that he says will help Illinois be more competitive and move beyond a lengthy history of financial mismanagement. They include overhauling workers’ compensation and unemployment, freezing property taxes, replacing Illinois’ pension system and creating “right to work zones” where union membership would be voluntary.

He says the roughly $6 billion deficit in next year’s budget — which Democrats want to close at least partially through a tax increase — creates the “leverage” he needs to get some of those changes.

“Crisis creates opportunity for change, and we have a crisis. … We’ve got to take advantage of that,” Rauner told attendees at an Illinois Chamber of Commerce event. “A lot people are saying ‘Bruce, just balance the budget and worry about other stuff later. We’ll talk to you later about reform.’ No, no, no. … If we do only that, they’ll never talk about reform. It’ll never happen.”

Rauner campaigned on his record as a successful businessman who could turn Illinois around just as he did hundreds of companies. But his efforts to mimic GOP governors in states like Indiana and Wisconsin have run up against a Legislature where Democrats hold supermajorities in both chambers.

Democrats insist any budget deal must include both cuts in spending and new revenue, saying slashing spending alone will hurt working people, the disabled and others who rely on the state for services such as cancer screening and mental health care.

“You’ve got to look at income and you’ve got to look at expenses,” said Rikeesha Phelon, a spokeswoman for Democratic Senate President John Cullerton.

Rauner and legislative leaders have discussed creating working groups to try to negotiate areas of compromise behind closed doors, an approach that Republicans say signifies a new way of doing things under the first divided government in Illinois in more than a decade.

Rauner has left a door open to new revenue. During last year’s campaign, he proposed a sales tax on some services, and he wouldn’t rule out raising Illinois’ income tax — which dropped from 5 percent to 3.75 percent on Jan. 1 — provided it’s down to 3 percent within four years.

“The governor has indicated that perhaps he would consider revenue, but there’s a pretty tall order that’s on the table,” House GOP Leader Jim Durkin said. “The governor wants a lot.”

Republican Senate Leader Christine Radogno believes there’s potential for a multifaceted deal and that both parties recognize the need to compromise. She also said the discussions should include a review of Illinois’ tax structure.

“I would say we’re in such desperate straits that nothing can be off the table for anybody,” she said.

But Phelon said the Senate will not consider Rauner’s proposal to create right to work zones, which unions strongly oppose and she says wouldn’t make Illinois more competitive. She said Senate Democrats also have differences of opinion with Rauner on what changes are needed to programs like workers’ compensation.

Steve Brown, a spokesman for Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan, said it was too early to say what the speaker might be willing to support, but that Madigan agreed his caucus would participate in the working groups.

The attempt to reach a grand bargain is playing out as both sides try to win the hearts and minds of voters.

Rauner has been pitching his plan on a campaign-style tour of Illinois. The multimillionaire also has created a new political action committee, Turnaround Illinois, to support legislators who back his agenda and oppose lawmakers who don’t.

Democrats have focused on telling the stories of people and organizations already hurt by cuts in the current state budget or who would lose funding in Rauner’s proposed 2016 budget, which doesn’t include any tax increases.

Senate Democrats have held hearings on the effect of the cuts across Illinois. On Friday, Madigan announced that a new budget oversight panel will begin meeting Tuesday to review some of the cuts Rauner made to state grant programs.

“While I believe that a budget solution should include a balance of spending cuts and additional revenue, as a state it’s also our duty to protect our most vulnerable citizens, including children with autism, persons with developmental disabilities and lower-income women in need of breast cancer screenings,” Madigan said.

Rauner, meanwhile, is continuing the hard sell.

“I’m a salesman,” he said. “I’m also an arm twister, so we’re going to do the best we

 

 

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