Among four groups of healthcare workers who have recently gone on strike, common factors contributing to the decision to strike include staffing issues, wages and workloads.
Here is a summary of those strikes and the causes behind them:
1. Heavy workloads. Pharmacy employees at Walgreens and CVS are in talks to organize nationwide walkouts and protests in late October.
CVS pharmacy employees in Kansas City called out of work in late September to protest heavy workloads and understaffing. Executives at the pharmacy chain met with the workers, who returned to work after CVS agreed to pay overtime, increase staffing and curb the amount of vaccination appointments.
Some Walgreens pharmacists followed suit, and some pharmacies closed across four states during the three-day walkout.
Walgreens employees are planning a walkout to last from Oct. 30 through Nov. 1, and the organizers are in contact with CVS pharmacists to join them. The main organizer for the labor action in Kansas City said they are meeting with CVS leadership Oct. 20, and if that meeting is unsuccessful, the CVS workers will be "100% behind" the national walkouts with Walgreens.
A CVS spokesperson told Becker's the company is "not seeing any unusual activity regarding unplanned pharmacy closures or pharmacist walkouts."
Walgreens did not comment on another possible walkout, and a spokesperson said the company is "recognizing it has been a very challenging time" for its staff and is listening to employees' concerns.
2. Living wages. Members of the Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals are set to begin a strike Oct. 23 at PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center in Vancouver, Wash., and PeaceHealth St. John Medical Center in Longview, Wash. The union represents about 1,300 service and maintenance and tech healthcare workers at PeaceHealth Southwest and the lab professionals at PeaceHealth St. John.
Union members voted to authorize a strike earlier this month, saying that management has not put reasonable offers on the table to sufficiently address issues that affect both staff and patients, such as safe staffing, living wages and a healthy future for patient care.
The union and hospital management have been negotiating a new labor contract for months and the union wants to continue bargaining with management in the days leading up to the strike.
A statement from PeaceHealth shared with Becker's says that during negotiations, the health system has "offered highly-competitive multiple proposals across three contracts that addresses in some way virtually every one of the issues OFNHP told us were important to caregivers."
"We're fighting to improve healthcare access and protect the communities our members serve; we won't settle until we accomplish exactly that," OFNHP President Jonathan Baker said in the union release.
3. Understaffing. Members of the Rochester Union of Nurses and Allied Professionals have voted for the second time this year to authorize a strike at Rochester (N.Y.) General Hospital.
Union members voted to authorize a strike on Oct. 11, according to CBS affiliate WROC. Union members also voted to authorize a strike in July and went on strike in August.
Union members cite staffing as a key issue in negotiations.
"There’s never a time when a nurse in the ICU should have more than two patients, and a lot of the time, they should just be one-to-one," Phoebe Sheehan, a registered nurse at RGH, said, according to WROC. "A lot of the times we are seeing inappropriately paired patients with nurses or three patients to one nurse and it definitely becomes a situation that's way too stressful and honestly dangerous."
A strike authorization does not mean a strike will occur. A strike could still be averted if an agreement is reached.
Both parties are scheduled to resume bargaining next week.