Philadelphia

Nurses and other healthcare professionals share stories that expose the impact on patients when Temple Hospital maximizes profits by cutting medical supplies, understaffing and decreasing patients' length of stay at the hospital. PASNAP (Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals) are striking over a contract that would institute a 'gag clause,' effectively barring these health professionals from advocating for patient safety.

 
The Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals (PASNAP) is winning an ongoing battle against Temple University Hospital. PASNAP wants reimbursement for tuition benefits that Temple abruptly stopped providing last March despite the fact that the benefits are part of their current contract. Jerry Silberman, staff representative, spoke with me about this legal fight and also discussed PASNAP's negotiations for a new contract.

On this show:
+Interviews with leaders of the Save the Libraries Coalition  
+A cab driver speaks about how the Philadelphia Parking Authority is mismanaging the taxi industry
+The Coalition of Immokolee Workers comes to Philadelphia to take on Aramark
+Immigrant worker's face the loss of driver licenses
+Music and other news
 

Philadelphia is in crisis. People across the city are feeling the effects of the global economic downturn and wondering what the future will bring for them and their families. The city has finally resolved a long, drawn out, and deeply unsettling budgeting process, and it feels now like the dust has finally settled. But even though massive service cuts and layoffs are off the table for now, this economic crisis is far from over, and we in Philadelphia now have a clear idea of the kinds of solutions our city government is willing to present.

 
Philadelphia, PA The Philadelphia Museum of Art is apparently not immune from the recession. Like other leading institutions of the arts, the museum has seen some of its income fall sharply. In February, management announced that in order to close an expected $1.7 million budget deficit the museum would need to lay off 15 staff, raise ticket prices by $2 to $6 each, and reduce Free Sundaysto only once a month. The cruelest cut was announced months later, in June, when museum guards earning between $16,000 and $20,000 a year learned they would not receive their promised $0.25 an hour raise.

On Tuesday July 14th nearly a hundred people gathered outside of Philadelphia City Hall, standing behind an empty kiddie pool bound in paper chains, to protest the closure of several public pools...

 
In late April, the Baltimore based human rights organizing group United Workers Association held a major human rights march and protest to announce the worst of the worst of the employers in Baltimore's Inner Harbor.

In this interview, Darnell Dixon details the working conditions he faces as a janitor in a center city building in Philadelphia. Mr Dixon explains that the company he currently works for recently established a series of new rules which are clearly violations of Darnell and other workers' human rights. Some of the rules these workers are forced to endure include: no talking on the job, no humming on the job, no pausing for a drink water, and no complaining about lack of ventilation. The broad edict for the workers is that they must be continuously cleaning and continuously moving.

After successfully pressuring CVS stores in Philly (and across the country) to unlock condoms in their stores and make them easily accessible to customers, the Cure CVS Campaign is taking on CVS about another public health issue: expired products.
 

On this month's edition of Labor Justice Radio:

+ Housing Organizers Frame the Economic Crisis

+ Community Responds to Northeastern Hospital Closure

+ Security Guards Speak Out about City Cuts to Wages

+ Cab Drivers Discuss Economic Survival under Rising Fees

+ Low Wage Workers continue to Organize in Baltimore

Plus music and other news.