| Are we becoming France? Or Finland? (I can’t imagine a worse fate.)
More than 75,000 health care workers are planning to walk off the job after negotiations with Kaiser Permanente failed to achieve the gains they had hoped for. This will be the largest strike of health care workers in U.S. history. (For those keeping track: actors are still striking, Hollywood writers just finished, autoworkers are still going, pharmacists in Kansas City just won’t come to work, and Las Vegas hospitality workers have had enough.)
An observation: Lots of publications will mention a laundry list of things picketers are demanding, with “higher wages” thrown in there almost as an afterthought, and very little detail about how high workers want those wages to go. But I doubt wages are an afterthought, I bet they’re the crux of most negotiations—whether or not those striking care to admit it—and journalists reporting on union activity should be very clear about facts and figures.
In keeping with that: The unionized Kaiser employees are looking for a four-year contract with pay hikes of 7 percent during the first two years and 6.25 percent in subsequent years, with bonuses (of up to 3 percent of their wages) each year.
Don’t get incensed! Today, the October Synod commences. Bishops from around the world will meet in the Vatican, where Pope Francis will allow discussion of contentious issues within the Roman Catholic Church, including celibacy and marriage for priests, whether female deacons ought to be permitted, the blessing of gay couples, and whether divorced people should receive the sacraments.
For the first time ever, 70 lay people—including women—will cast votes on the direction of the Church alongside the bishops. The New York Times calls this “a concrete shift toward the democratization of the church, a central tenet of the Francis papacy that views the abuse of power in an aloof hierarchy as the cause of many of the church’s problems.” |
