National parks
Workers at both Yosemite and Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Parks have won union elections recently, voting in the National Federation of Federal Employees, which represents about 110,000 government workers. There are organizing campaigns at 100 other national park sites. Conditions for workers at the parks have been declining for a while, and park employees list inadequate pay, understaffing and poor housing among their long-term grievances.
Now the President Trump administration’s recent steps dismantling park services have resulted in mass layoffs, leaving these beloved natural lands and wildlife unprotected. Some parks have had a 30% reduction in their workforce. Tensions increased as crackdowns on diversity, equity and inclusion policies resulted in the unlawful firing of a park ranger who displayed a transgender flag on the face of El Capitan in Yosemite.
Parks workers have held a number of demonstrations protesting the job cuts.
Clinicians in Washington state
The clinicians at Community Health of Central Washington have petitioned to join the Union of American Physicians and Dentists. The Community Health of Central Washington UAPD chapter represents almost 100 clinicians across six family medicine practices. UAPD was established in 1972 and has over 7,000 members. It advocates for advanced practice clinicians including doctors, dentists, nurse practitioners, podiatrists and veterinarians in public and private clinical practices. Its membership already includes chapters in California, New York, Colorado, New Mexico and Washington, D.C.
NOLA nurses condemn hospital bosses
Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans 20 years ago. Floodwaters overwhelmed Charity Hospital, shuttering the historic 20-story complex in the heart of downtown. “Charity: The Heroic and Heartbreaking Story of Charity Hospital in Hurricane Katrina,” by Jim Carrier, published in 2015, is a harrowing account of how hospital staff and patients faced an impossible situation.
As many patients as possible, including newborns, were evacuated to nearby hospitals, including University Medical Center of New Orleans. UMCNO expanded its safety net services, adding much needed hospital beds, housing displaced residents fleeing floodwaters and working with the community to connect family members searching for loved ones.
Fast forward to 2025: Charity Hospital, once a pillar of public health with roots stretching back 289 years, still stands empty, its future uncertain. UMCNO was purchased by the hospital conglomerate LCMC Health. Working conditions have deteriorated due to short staffing, inadequate security and hostile management. Nurses at UMCNO are speaking out and detailing LCMC’s faults in a website, charitybetrayed.com.
Nurses at UMCNO are represented by the National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United (NNOC/NNU), the country’s largest nurses union. UMCNO nurses were the first in Louisiana to unionize in 2023. LCMC executives have refused to come to the table to discuss pressing concerns about patient care and staff retention. Instead, CEO Greg Feirn locked out nurses over Super Bowl weekend, replacing experienced nurses with temporary staff.
The company has spent over $1 million on anti-union consultants. LCMC executives are making profits by raising hospital costs and limiting access for uninsured patients and low-income families. The union nurses at UMCNO are fighting for their community against corporate greed.
While Charity Hospital may be shuttered, UMCNO nurse Ory Mire, registered nurse in case management, had this to say: “We are the spirit of Charity — the nurses of New Orleans, our patients and the community that supports us. Many of us worked there, even learned to be nurses there. A lot of us were born there!
LCMC wants to claim they represent the spirit of Charity, but if that were true, they’d be working with us, the people who made Charity what it was and who make UMC what it is today.” (nationalnursesunited.org, Aug. 15)