Red Cross Workers Protest Health Demands in 3-day Strike

About 160 Red Cross workers represented by CWA Local 13000 made a public statement about demands for health care concessions and management's refusal to bargain fairly in a three-day strike this week, then returned to work Jan. 31 to make sure communities that rely on their services are fully served.

The workers, who staff blood banks and bloodmobiles in counties across Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio, West Virginia and Virginia, conducted the unfair labor practice strike to protest management's refusal to provide CWA with information it requested concerning health care costs.

"No one wanted to go on strike, but management forced this dispute by attacking workers' health care and demanding huge increases in costs and big cuts in benefits," said District 13 Vice President Jim Short.  

CWA members are asking residents and communities to urge the Red Cross to bargain a fair contract. Under some management proposals, workers would pay a high deductible and a 20-percent premium share, plus 10 to 15 percent of their hospital bills.