Strikes and labor organizing are on the rise as essential workers grapple with safety concerns while on the job. Meatpacking plants, city sanitation and healthcare are some of the industries where workers are striking or organizing.
Host Frank Stasio speaks with senior labor reporter and founder of Payday Report Mike Elk about national labor organizing trends since the start of the pandemic. Here in North Carolina, nurses employed by one of the state’s largest health systems, Mission Health, are pushing to unionize. Freelance reporter Jonathan Michels joins the conversation to share the conflict between nurses and HCA Healthcare in Asheville, which owns Mission Health. And Trisha Stevenson, an emergency department nurse at Mission Hospital in Asheville, shares what is happening on the ground as she and her colleagues look for more power and representation.