About 100 workers from UPMC facilities in Pittsburgh are expected to strike Oct. 4 to gain support for their goal of unionization, according to a Pittsburgh City Paper report.
The Service Employees International Union Healthcare is helping to organize the one-day walkout. Joining its efforts are workers such as Arlynna Evans, a housekeeper at Pittsburgh-based UPMC Mercy who said she experienced frustration with management over paid time off after a miscarriage. She and other workers seek unionization.
"I think we deserve it, we really do," Ms. Evans told Pittsburgh City Paper. "It is going to take a lot more work to get people [to] stop being afraid of UPMC. I think we can do this. We have to do this. If we don't, we are telling [management] it is fine for them to treat us this way."
The decision to strike comes after the National Labor Relations Board ruled Aug. 6 that UPMC unlawfully prohibited off-duty workers from unionization efforts.
Ms. Evans told Pittsburgh City Paper that decision prompted the upcoming strike. Additionally, she said she also believes UPMC could increase workers' pay given its plans to invest $2 billion to build three digitally centered specialty hospitals.
A UPMC spokesperson said the organization is "fully prepared to take care of our patients regardless of turnout, which in the past has been very low."
UPMC workers also went on strike in October 2017. About 40 of UPMC's 85,000 employees participated.
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