American red cross number8/29/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() “Staff are being sent home for 10 to 14 days at a time, unpaid,” added Terrell. She also criticized the organization for not paying workers to quarantine after being exposed to donors or coworkers who test positive for Covid-19. She also expressed frustration with American Red Cross’s proposal to cut the employees’ health insurance benefits, saying she is concerned that cutting healthcare will worsen staffing problems. “That’s a major slap in the face to the current staff that have worked through this whole pandemic and not been offered anything but pizza.” “The people they’ve hired since November are significantly making more money than the staff who have been here for years,” said Terrell. Otherwise, we’d be fearing for our job because we’d be too worried about being written up for attendance.”īobbie Terrell, a collections technician and member of AFSCME Council 31 at a branch in Peoria, Illinois, criticized American Red Cross for responding to chronic staffing shortages in her area by offering $1,500 sign on bonuses for new hires and paying them higher wages, while the only appreciation or benefit that longtime employees have received is pizza.Īmerican Red Cross blood drive held at the Reservoir church in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on 30 March 2020. “We’re always forced to come into work no matter what, sick or not, we were expected to be there. “When we’re working, we’re expected to work at 100%, but we never have 100% in return,” added Zebrowski. She said the low pay and forced overtime led to worsening understaffing through the pandemic, with management rushing new hires through training and blaming existing staff when errors were made as a result. It’s a slap in the face to work for the amount of money we are working for.” The contracts still keep getting pushed out because they don’t want to give us a raise or even acknowledge anything we do for the company. “I was sick of the pay and all the constant bargaining and everything. “I can go work at any fast food restaurant and make more money,” said Zebrowski. The people they’ve hired since November are significantly making more money than the staff who have been here for years Bobbie TerrellĪs an aide specialist, she collected platelet, plasma and blood donations, conducted medical physicals of donors and took patient histories and helped run blood donation drives, which she noted were consistently understaffed and resulted in work shifts that went at least one hour or longer past her scheduled ten-hour shift without being able to take breaks. Workers who collect and manage blood donations for the non-profit continued working throughout the Covid-19 pandemic as essential workers.Īlexis Zebrowski, a member of CWA Local 1118, worked as an aide specialist at the branch in Albany, New York for one year before quitting in November 2021 over the low pay around minimum wage, understaffing and working conditions through the pandemic. The American Red Cross provides about 40% of the nation’s blood supply. The majority of its revenue, approximately $1.73bn, went toward biomedical services, the part of the organization that collects blood donations and sells them to hospitals and healthcare providers. The American Red Cross reported a revenue of more than $2.8bn in the 2020 fiscal year and the CEO of the non-profit received a salary of more than $700,000. The unions are pushing for wage increases, to preserve existing healthcare plans and for solutions to address chronic staffing shortages around the US. ![]() The Coalition of American Red Cross Unions, which represents about 4,900 workers from 11 international unions at American Red Cross across the US, is bargaining with the American Red Cross over the national addendum to the unions’ contracts, which expires on 31 March 2022. “It’s a slap in the face to the employees for management to say ‘we’re going to cut your healthcare and not pay you anything, while we’re going to work from home and be safe.’” ![]() A woman gives blood at a Red Cross blood drive in July 2020 even as the Covid-19 pandemic surged. ![]()
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