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Open Letter to Ascension Wisconsin Employees to Organize

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Dear nurses, techs, and other frontline healthcare workers of Ascension Wisconsin: Remember, we are stronger together. You know what we’ve just survived. Imagine what we could accomplish if we get organized.

Without us, the frontline healthcare workers, Ascension would not be able to keep their doors open or care for patients. While we may be getting back online, the ongoing crisis across Ascension hospitals and clinics as a result of a cyberattack makes this crystal clear. We’re proving right now how we can unite to care for each other and our patients, even when administration leaves us in the dark. That’s why we need to come together in a union, every Ascension healthcare worker across Wisconsin, because we deserve better from our employer, our patients deserve better, and together, we are powerful. If you’re an Ascension healthcare worker, email our union at organize@wfnhp.org to start the process of building a union in your workplace.

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WFNHP-Local 5000 Membership Meeting/Cookout

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ATTENTION WFNHP MEMBERS!
 
Join us for our upcoming WFNHP-Local 5000 Spring Union Member Meeting & Cookout! We will be gathering on Saturday, June 22, 2024 from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the WFNHP Union Hall (9620 W. Greenfield Ave.-1st floor hall in West Allis, WI).
 
Members are not only welcome, but encouraged to bring their families, children, partners and significant others to this event. There will be plenty of food, fun and activities for all ages!
 

Please RSVP by end of day June 17 here: https://tinyurl.com/45zfa39z

*Please note this event is for WFNHP members & their families only. Not open to the public.
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Interview with WTMJ4 News & Other Media Coverage RE: Ascension Cyber Attack & Effect on Hospital Workers

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Watch our interview with WTMJ4 News regarding the recent Ascension cyber security attack and our concerns over the disruption of care and services at St. Francis Hospital in Milwaukee, WI. WTMJ4 News Interview -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rh9PiVg42k

Here's a thread of other press stories about the effect of the cybersecurity hack and our members' collective efforts to keep caring for their patients:

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Congratulations! Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin Workers Join WFNHP

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With 81% of the vote, healthcare workers at Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin have voted to join our union! Congratulations to the newest members of WFNHP who have chosen to unionize to better care for their patients, their families and themselves!

Read the press release here: https://wfnhp.aft.org/press/planned-parenthood-workers-win-their-union-historic-vote-uniting-stronger-care-across

WFNHP Local-5000 Election Announcement - 2024-2025 New Officers

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December 15, 2023

We would like to announce the following union leaders were recently re-elected as Officers of the WFNHP Local 5000 Executive Board for a term of office beginning January 1, 2024 and ending December 31, 2025. You may recall we sent out a newsletter this Fall asking for nominations to fill the 7 positions that make up our Executive Board. All current Officers decided to run for re-election. Since all candidates ran unopposed, according to our union's constitution and bylaws, these individuals were automatically elected after review by the Election Committee, and without the need for a secret ballot vote by the membership. Congratulations to the following Officers on your re-election:

PRESIDENT: Connie Smith (Ascension-St. Francis Serv/Tech)

EXEC. VICE PRESIDENT: Barb Pomasl (Non Bargaining Unit)

SECRETARY: Rachel Spotz (Aurora Burlington)

TREASURER: John Epple (Non Bargaining Unit)

VP-at-Large: Louie Borda (Wisconsin Diagnostic Laboratories)

VP-at-Large: Mary Milton (Non Bargaining Unit)

VP-at-Large:  VACANT

Join Us! 12/9/23 WFNHP-Local 5000 Membership Meeting

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ATTENTION WFNHP UNION MEMBERS...
 
Join us on Saturday, December 9th from 11AM to 2PM for our next WFNHP-Local 5000 Membership Meeting. We will be meeting in three locations (Antigo/Cumberland/Milwaukee) simultaneously to allow for more members to attend/participate. In addition to our regular reports and union business, we will have a special guest speaker--Joe Burns, who will be discussing the importance of fighting back against healthcare corporations, and how taking collective actions can help build worker power and strengthen our union.
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Prizing the Frontline, Not the Bottom Line, in Wisconsin

AFT Health Care Fall 2023 Issue Cover

The goal of the Wisconsin Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals (WFNHP) Code Red campaign is to engage healthcare workers in healing our healthcare system and making it sustainable again—which our members and our patients desperately need. The corporate model of healthcare prizes the bottom line over the frontlines and over patient safety. It has driven healthcare workers to the breaking point. The pandemic lit healthcare on fire, laying bare its structural issues and demonstrating just how unsafe and unsustainable corporate healthcare’s “do more with less” approach is.

For years, our

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What unions do

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In AFT President Randi Weingarten’s latest New York Times  column, she describes what it is exactly that unions do. Though unions are the most popular they have been in decades, anti-union sentiment still thrives in red states and across the nation. “Several years ago, The Atlantic ran a story whose headline made even me, a labor leader, scratch my head: ‘Union Membership: Very Sexy,’” Weingarten writes in the column. “The gist was that higher wages, health benefits and job security—all associated with union membership—boost one’s chances of getting married. Belonging to a union doesn’t actually guarantee happily ever after, but it does help working people have a better life in the here and now.” Click through to read the full column.

WFNHP Statement on Employer Mandated COVID Vaccinations for Healthcare Workers

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August 20, 2021 The COVID-19 pandemic has been a largely unmitigated disaster. More than half a million Americans have died as a result of the virus. Through it all, nurses, nursing assistants, respiratory therapists, other healthcare professionals, and the various staff that keep our hospitals running have been worked to the bone. Without the efforts of these workers, including the workers who we represent across the state of Wisconsin, many more would have tragically lost their lives. As if healthcare workers weren’t a vital part of society before, the debt they are owed after what they’ve struggled through over the past year and a half is vast. Despite the service of these workers to the communities in which they live and beyond, the healthcare corporations that they are employed by have not done enough to reciprocate these efforts. At several junctures over the course of the pandemic, employers have refused to offer bonuses for essential workers, failed to provide ample Personal Protective Equipment, failed to provide proper medical equipment, failed to provide proper staffing, and failed to produce appropriately safe working conditions. To sum it up, corporate healthcare employers have failed their workers and the people to whom they provide care. While the frontlines were starved for support, it was the bottom lines that received the reinforcements. This behavior isn’t new on the part of these corporations, but the stark differences between their words and their actions has never been more clear than now. MORE

WFNHP Fall 2020 General Election Endorsements

Hazard pay, paid quarantine leave, and covered medical costs are on your ballot. Vote for the people who have your back. It’s been about 200 days since the Wisconsin legislature passed a bill or held a vote on any legislation. Meanwhile, almost 2,000 Wisconsinites have died from COVID-19. You’ve been overworked every day of this pandemic, and things just keep getting worse. These candidates have affirmed their support for your right to hazard pay, paid leave, and covered medical costs. We urge you to support them because they support you. 

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