Labor & Workers
Labor unions, workers' rights, and employment
Business groups want wage discrimination bill with teeth to be defanged
The Senate Labor Committee started Wednesday's hearing on two wage discrimination bills with only two Senators in attendance, Senator Gayle Goldin (Democrat, District 3, Providence) the sponsor of one of the bills, and Senator Paul Fogar...
Eastland Food Products workers stage one-day strike
150 Eastland Food Products workers went on a one-day strike Tuesday for better benefits, working conditions and respect on the job. Workers voted overwhelmingly to join UFCW Local 328 in May of 2016. The company, located at 69 Fletcher A...
Eastland Food Products workers target Whole Foods over fair wages
Workers for Eastland Food Products, located in Cranston, were handing out flyers outside of Whole Foods on Waterman Street in Providence Friday afternoon to call attention to charges of wage theft. "Eastland hasn't paid time and a half o...
Providence Teachers Union pickets Elorza's State of the City Address
[caption id="attachment_4994" align="alignright" width="400"] Maribeth Calabro, left[/caption] Hundreds of Providence public school teachers and supporters picketed Mayor Jorge Elorza’s State of City Address on Tuesday night, loudly fill...
UNAP, Care New England reach agreement to save jobs at Memorial Hospital
The United Nurses and Allied and Professionals (UNAP) Local 5082 and representatives from Care New England (CNE) have reached an agreement on the scope of healthcare services and jobs that will remain on the campus of Memorial Hospital a...
UNAP files lawsuit to preserve healthcare services and jobs at Memorial Hospital
United Nurses and Allied Professionals (UNAP) Local 5082 filed a lawsuit in Superior Court today in an effort to preserve healthcare services and jobs at Pawtucket's Memorial Hospital. The union contends that critical provisions in the H...
Rhode Island is the only New England state relying on anti-labor, ALEC-inspired preemption clauses
No other state in New England has passed even one preemptive labor law. Rhode Island has passed two. Writing for the Economic Policy Institute, Marni von Wilbert defines “preemption” as "a situation in which a state law is enacted to blo...
Nurses want to know: What are Care New England's plans for Memorial?
Care New England announced the closing/down-sizing of Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island in Pawtucket on October 17, after a pending sale to a California based health care company fell through, but details about the closure have been scan...
Nurses and hospital workers keep pressure on as pension winds its way through court
Around 50 active and retired St Joseph Health Services of Rhode Island pension plan participants picketed outside Providence Superior Court Friday morning. The St Joseph Health Services defined-benefit pension was placed in temporary rec...
New law makes it easier to form worker cooperatives
Governor Gina Raimondo was in Central Falls on Wednesday to sign the bills that would "make it easier for workers' cooperatives to formally incorporate and do business in Rhode Island." The new law, H6001 and S676, will allow organizatio...