Connecticut Red Cross Workers Fight for Safety, Respect

October 01, 2009

SAFETY FIRST – Connecticut Red Cross workers – members of Local 3145 (Council 4) – take their case public during an informational picket in Norwalk. (Photo credit: Larry Dorman)

Members of Connecticut Local 3145 (AFSCME Council 4) are joining Red Cross blood collection workers nationwide who are raising public awareness about how Red Cross puts profits ahead of safety.

The AFSCME-represented workers – nurses, laboratory technicians, phlebotomists, drivers and others employed at the organization’s headquarters in Farmington – are part of a national coalition of unionized Red Cross employees who are determined to improve their working conditions and ensure the safety of donors and the blood supply.

The 225 Local 3145 members have been working without a contract since April. “The Red Cross is all about big money and bigger profits at the expense of donors and workers,” Local 3145 Pres. Debra Lenentine said at a rally this summer.

Connecticut Red Cross workers are currently fighting the company’s practice of using unlicensed personnel, instead of licensed nurses, to perform a common type of blood collection procedure.

Supporting the union’s position, the State Department of Public Health recently issued a letter to the Red Cross stating that the blood collection procedure “cannot be delegated” to unlicensed personnel.

To read the letter and related news stories, visit the Council 4 website.