Albany Hit with Healthcare Strike
Healthcare workers picketing while on strike. Credit: California Nurses Association
Maximus Incorporated, a healthcare call center, went on strike in November in Albany over fair wages, affordable healthcare and the ability to freely organize their union. These workers are employed by the company that is a “federal and state-contracted company” according to News 10 ABC.
This strike comes during the enrollment period that began Nov. 9 for public healthcare such as Medicare and the Affordable Care Act. The role of these workers is to help the public with their questions about their healthcare.
According to Maximus tech department worker Michael Cipolla, “The timing of the strike during the enrollment is no coincidence.” Cipolla explained the goal of the workers on strike is to show the company the importance of their work.
Several Maximus locations joined the Albany locations in strikes such as locations in Virginia, Arizona, Kentucky, and Florida. This amounts to 700 call center workers on strike and is the “largest call center strike in history.”
According to Maximus workers, “They had no choice but to go on strike,” due to the lack of livable wages and good working conditions. A majority of Maximus employees “Rely on safety net programs due to low wages.”
“It is unacceptable that workers who provide access to affordable healthcare under federal contracts not only lack affordable healthcare themselves but too often face overwhelming medical debt,” said Stacey Abrams, the former Georgia house representative and gubernatorial candidate.
So far the demands made by the workers on strike for “livable wages” as well as “better working conditions” have gone unanswered by Maximus.
Strikes in the healthcare industry have become very popular lately. In October, over 75,000 healthcare workers from California, Colorado, Oregon and Washington also began striking. The picketers are “seeking higher wages and solutions to a short-staffing crisis….” according to CNN.
Similar to the call center strike in Albany, patients are being affected by the striking of healthcare workers as well.
Kaiser Permanente, a nonprofit healthcare company that offers plans, has been one of the companies with workers on strike. They have stated that they have tried to keep patient care at the highest level of quality possible, but patients claim to have still been impacted. Patients have expressed guilt for attending Kaiser hospitals despite the strike “even though it was for an emergency.”
The nonprofit has also experienced a worker strike.
Rising inflation in the US has contributed to the uprising in strikes, specifically in the healthcare industry. “Workers have had it with stagnating pay and soaring rent, fuel, and grocery bills,” as noted by The Nation. The COVID-19 pandemic was an additional factor that fueled the burnout of healthcare workers due to the “grueling work hours, dangerous short staffing, and basic safety equipment issues.”
Likely, these strikes will not subside anytime soon because many strikes are caused by the “fundamental problem of the for-profit healthcare system.” Healthcare workers are having to deal with the void of “the political vacuum” left after the rejection of the Medicare for All Act in Congress. Even if the current strikes are resolved, “future healthcare strikes are likely to continue to fill that space.”
The strikes will likely not end until “the fundamental struggle over the nature of healthcare” is revolutionized.