Francis Hospital in Milwaukee, claimed management failed to implement social distancing practices “properly or effectively” and that workers were not informed when they were exposed to patients and coworkers with confirmed cases of Covid- 19. There are complaints from hospitals across the Ascension health system. Nurses, some of them exhausted by persistent coughs and high fevers, were told to drive to the next hospital over. According to Cox, however, Genesys has so far refused to either provide on-site tests for nurses or inform employees of the number of positive or assumed cases among staff, despite repeated union requests.

Nurses at the hospital have tested positive. Even now, she says, much of that equipment remains unused. “We felt a lack of respect for what we do.”Īt the height of the pandemic, management kept stockpiles of PPE under lock and key in their offices while telling nurses to wear garbage bags instead, according to Kimberly Cox, a registered nurse and the Chief Steward of Teamsters 332. “There was not good communication,” Clemons said. Ironically, some of the managers who threatened mask-wearing employees were the same who later tested positive for the coronavirus. In hallways and offices, where nurses worked closely together, managers enforced a no-mask policy into April, according to Clemons. But it’s clear that they are surging.Ĭommon in the complaints are allegations of managerial neglect, carelessness and abuse.Īnd while we may like to think that bad management is the exclusive territory of greedy corporations, the complaints show how healthcare workers, some of them working for nominally non-profit hospitals, have been failed by their employers even as they perform dangerous and essential work.Īt Ascension Genesys Hospital in Grand Blanc, Michigan, a suburb of Flint, several OSHA complaints filed at the end of March alleged widespread shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) and threats from management.Ĭarolyn Clemons, a registered nurse working in Genesys Hospital’s Covid- 19 intensive care unit and member of Teamsters Local 332, said that in late March, when cases were skyrocketing, nurses who wore masks outside of patient rooms were threatened with disciplinary actions and firings. It’s unknown exactly how many more complaints than usual have been filed, as OSHA complaints are relatively confidential.

The data show at least 21, 510 Covid-related Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) complaints since the start of the pandemic.

That’s according to a dataset and interactive map recently released by Strikewave, a newsletter of original reporting and analysis for the U.S. But these workers who we rely on so deeply - dubbed “warriors” by President Donald Trump and “heroes” by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell - continue to work under hostile management and in dangerous workplaces that make the disease even more contagious and deadly.

Ascension genesys map