
Amsterdamn News: Nurses, caregivers hold protest for better jobs, care
It was a hot day in late spring, but health care workers were turning up the heat on their bosses last Wednesday.
Standing on what they called “informational picket lines,” nurses and caregivers held a citywide protest for quality care and better jobs at 100 facilities throughout the five boroughs.
The rallies marked the beginning stages of an effort to educate patients and the public about health care CEOs who workers feel are threatening the quality of health care services and jobs in New York City.

New York Daily News: President Obama Lunches with 1199 Members, Declares Health Benefits Crucial
WASHINGTON – Shirley Young, a nurse from the Bronx, was invited to lunch in the capital Monday, but she had no idea President Obama would be sitting next to her in Chipotle.
A single mother who works at the Isabella Geriatric Center in Washington Heights, Young was invited to a White House-hosted summit on working families after she spoke up at a prior event in New York about her struggle to pay for her son’s scoliosis surgery.

Labor Press: Local 1199 Tells Hospitals ‘Don’t Mess With Our Health Care!’
More than 1,000 Local 1199 SEIU members picketed outside Mount Sinai Hospital on the Upper East Side June 18, protesting a contract-talks proposal by the city’s nonprofit hospitals and nursing homes to make “radical changes” in workers’ health benefits.
The crowd, mostly women and many wearing blue hospital scrubs, packed a block of Madison Avenue at East 100th Street, waving purple union pennants, chanting loudly, and cheering when passing truckers, car-service cabbies, and Access-A-Ride paratransit drivers honked in support. Local 1199 members also did “informational picketing” outside numerous other hospitals in the city and suburbs.“They want to completely restructure our benefits,” said registered nurse Elaine Iorio. “We’ll go from paying nothing to paying a monthly premium and copays. And no raise.”

NY Daily News: Amnesty International Jumping In On Side Of 1199SEIU Workers In Health Coverage Tussle
Human rights group Amnesty International is wading into the a massive hospital-worker union’s fight to maintain their own free health coverage.
As 1199SEIU on Thursday returned to contract talks with the League of Voluntary Hospitals and Homes of New York employer group, Amnesty Executive Director Steven Hawkins on Thursday vowed to mobilize his 3 million members to back the workers.

MidHudsonNews.com: Healthcare Workers Conduct Informational Pickets As Master Contract Expiration Nears
RHINEBECK – Nurses and healthcare workers of 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East Wednesday conducted informational pickets at five Westchester County facility locations and one in Dutchess County.
The employees, represented by the union, have been in master contract negotiations with the League of Voluntary Hospitals and Homes, the employer group representing most private hospitals, nursing homes and clinics in the area.

SI Live: More than 260 healthcare workers on Staten Island picket for better benefits (with photos & video)
UPDATE 2:15 p.m: Singing “hands in the air for quality care,” low-wage workers from Carmel Richmond Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center managed to get the attention of many motorists driving down Old Town Road in Dongan Hills on Wednesday as part of a city-wide picket for better benefits.