"Union unhappy with convention center food deal; Plan says new vendor will honor old pact" by Katie Johnston Chase, Globe Staff | February 9, 2010
The Massachusetts Convention Center Authority plans to bring in a new food and beverage provider to replace longtime vendor Aramark Corp., a move that is upsetting union officials who worry that the new company may not honor a hard-won labor agreement....
Good move, though!!
See: Fenway Franks, Get Your Fenway Franks Here
Yeah, you don't want to have Aramark making your meals.
Levy Restaurants serves six convention centers around the country and more than 100 arenas, ballparks, and stadiums, such as the Staples Center in Los Angeles, Wrigley Field in Chicago, and Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wis.
Yeah, I never eat at the ballgames I never go to anymore, nor do I dine out. Those days are over forever.
Levy also owns nine restaurants, including Spiaggia in Chicago, a date night favorite of President Obama and his wife, Michelle.
Related: Obama Talks With His Mouth Full
Meet First Lady Michelle Obama
Eat up, Obombers!!!
Levy officials did not comment last night about Unite Here’s concerns. The Boston convention center contract would be Levy’s first foray into the region.
Aramark, which has been the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority’s food and beverage provider since 1987, competed for the new contract but did not make the final cut. The authority has had an admittedly rocky history with Aramark, James Rooney, the authority’s executive director, citing inconsistent quality of food and service....
To say the least!
Unite Here Local 26 and Aramark, which serves Fenway Park and Boston University, have also had a contentious past.
I wouldn't eat there, either.
The union and the food services company engaged in bitter contract negotiations for more than a year - a standoff that included the union picketing outside the convention centers - before an agreement was reached in December 2008....
Related: Do Not Eat at the Boston Globe
Also see: Whatever Happened at the Hyatt?
I wouldn't get my hopes up, Aramark.
Neither should you nurses:
"Costs on rise, nurses protest staffing changes" by Liz Kowalczyk, Globe Staff | February 12, 2010
Tufts Medical Center says it has found a way to trim the high cost of nursing while improving care, but the plan prompted a protest yesterday outside the Boston hospital by nurses, who say it is an example of the intense cost-cutting pressure on hospitals statewide.
Labor is typically a hospital’s biggest single expense and one of the fastest growing, and nurses are the largest portion of that cost, with the average salary for a Massachusetts nurse rising nearly 40 percent from 2003 to 2008....
Massachusetts nurses have enjoyed some of the highest salaries in the United States, which is typical of states with strong nurses unions. The average salary for a nurse in Massachusetts was $79,000 in 2008, up from $57,000 in 2003, and second only to California, said Judith Shindul-Rothschild, a nurse and professor at Boston College. Massachusetts nurses also enjoy some of the best working conditions in the country and are among the most highly educated, she said....
I'd question that last one.
What in the world are they complaining about?
And you can see why California is in the dumper, huh?
Tufts administrators said they will save up to $3 million annually by increasing the number of patients assigned to each nurse, which will allow the hospital to hire fewer nurses.
Oh, that should help our jobs situation in the expanding medical field.
But they said cost was not the primary reason for the change, adding that they want to improve care and working conditions for nurses. The hospital is bringing on 35 technicians to free up nurses from unskilled jobs like transporting patients to imaging tests and tracking down missing meals, so they can focus on monitoring vital signs, giving medications, and providing essential patient care.
Then why are they against it?
“Our nurses will be working smarter,’’ said Nancy Shendell-Falik, Tufts’ chief nursing officer, who said she believes patients could get more, not less, attention from their nurses. She said a consultant hired by the hospital found that nurses at Tufts - and, by extension, other Boston teaching hospitals - care for fewer patients than is typical for similar hospitals elsewhere in the country.
And yet they are COMPLAINING!!!!
No wonder our HEALTH CARE COSTS are SO HIGH!!!
8% a year raises for goldbricking!
But many nurses are upset by the changes....
Even if they don't understand them, huh? Just a reflexive knee-jerk, huh?
“Nurses are overwhelmed,’’ said Barbara Tiller, a nurse at Tufts for more than 20 years. “They are behind their entire shift. Patients slowly deteriorate now, and no one picks it up until they’re in a crisis mode.’’
WHY? TOO MANY BREAKS?
They HAVE IT BETTER than the REST of the NATION and are PAID MORE, too!
WTF?!!!!
The Massachusetts Nurses Association, a large union, also organized a protest at Boston Medical Center yesterday....
Related: The Massachusetts Model: Wall Street's Diagnosis
Yeah, who cares if the hospital is losing money.
How that job going to look when it shuts down completely, 'eh?
The union also bought newspaper advertisements yesterday criticizing the changes at the hospitals....
They WASTED MONEY on that?
Soaring hospital costs statewide are under increasing scrutiny.
Related: Memory Hole: Why the Nation Doesn't Need Massachusetts Health Care
That's why our costs are so high.
Looks like the nurses are getting a kickback, too.
Medical costs in Massachusetts are growing more than 7 percent annually, driving up insurance premiums and threatening to bankrupt businesses.
And we ALL KNOW WHY!!!!
Last month, the attorney general’s office found that the increases are largely driven by higher prices charged by hospitals and doctors, and Governor Deval Patrick proposed legislation Wednesday that would allow the administration to review and reject medical provider rates.
Related: The Massachusetts Model: The AG's Amnesia
At the same time, some hospitals, including Tufts, have been at a financial disadvantage because they get lower reimbursement rates than their larger competitors with more market clout. Boston Medical Center, too, is struggling with cutbacks in state funding and has sued the state over the issue.
Yeah, because they are being tripled charged for the same services so Partners can profit!
Nursing always has been a huge expense for hospitals....
Yeah, blame labor costs, pro-management MSM.
--more--"
Are you SURE you want that health care reform modeled after Massachusetts, America?
And let's not forget the illegal housekeepers at Woods Hole!
"Low-wage workers at lab win job fight; Woods Hole had sought to outsource" by Jenna Russell, Globe Staff | February 13, 2010
In liberal, labor-loving Massachusetts?
WOODS HOLE - Their boss gave them notice five weeks ago, telling them their work was slated for outsourcing. But after a combined century of service to one of the world’s most respected research institutions, the housekeepers at the Marine Biological Laboratory refused to go quietly.
Instead, the eight women and their union fought to save their jobs. Yesterday, their efforts paid off, as the lab and the union announced a joint agreement to keep the longtime housekeepers on staff and not outsource their work to a local franchise of Jani-King, a controversial Texas firm facing a class-action lawsuit in Massachusetts.
Pffft!
The agreement benefits the lab by giving it the flexibility to scale back staffing levels during its slow winter season, probably with temporary layoffs of some workers.
The resolution ended a tense and unusual standoff between the low-wage workers and the laboratory, where scientists have summered for more than a century, in an idyllic Cape Cod village with lab space for their work and housing for their families....
Yeah, ELITES BEHAVE the SAME all over!
The rare outbreak of labor unrest brought a much more uncomfortable spotlight to this seaside science mecca in its quiet season.
Damn trouble-making workers.
The housekeepers, with help from the Service Employees International Union, which represents them, organized rallies on the town dock in Woods Hole and solicited support from scientists whose summer cottages they have cleaned for decades. Some even traveled to the door of an exclusive club in New York City last weekend to picket outside a reception for marine lab trustees....
Like other premier research institutions, the marine lab has felt the strain of recent economic turmoil. The recession battered its $45 million endowment, which lost 27 percent of its value by the end of 2008, and stretched its $30 million operating budget; in response, it was forced to cut back research awards to visiting scientists, freeze some salaries, limit travel, and leave some staff vacancies unfilled, according to a report to corporation members made in August that was posted on its website.
Are you REALLY INTERESTED in the FART-MISTERS FINANCIAL WOES, American?
Pfffft!
Sitting on HOW MANY BILLIONS?
John Dowling, a Harvard ophthalmologist and marine lab trustee, said that its endowment has bounced back, its current fund drive - now in its quiet phase - is going “extraordinarily well,’’ and its financial footing remains solid....
Then WHY SCREW the HOUSEKEEPERS?
The housekeepers, who include three women in their 60s, two Chinese immigrants, and a young mother, said they make $10 to $20 an hour, plus benefits.
Not bad.
They said they were told the outsourcing would save the lab between $100,000 and $200,000 a year.
When they are SITTING on $30 BILLION?
Jani-King, a fast-growing national firm, is facing a class-action lawsuit in federal court in Massachusetts that alleges it engaged in unfair and deceptive business practices, and misclassified its employees as independent contractors to avoid paying overtime and worker’s compensation.
Yeah, that is RAMPANT these days! Just ask anyone who worked at Wal-Mart.
Hey, what are you going to do when you are an illegal? Complain to the cops?
“They target immigrants and sell them the American dream,’’ said Shannon Liss-Riordan, a Boston attorney representing hundreds of franchisees.
Yup, the SELL YOU a PILE of SHIT with a ribbon tied around it, immigrant
Responding to similar complaints in the past, Jani-King executives have said they have no merit, that their business practices have been the same for decades, and that there are many success stories among their franchisees....
Moot now, right?
