Good afternoon everyone,

Welcome to another edition of the Keystone Labor Report, where I join you from the road today.

I traveled to Pittsburgh to cover the roughly 1,000 nurses from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Magee-Womens Hospital celebrating their historic union election. They went up against the commonwealth’s largest private employer and overcame an anti-union campaign in order to secure this victory. 

And you can read about and see more of their celebration in our edition Thursday. 

(Photo: Getty Images) 

Democrats in the Pennsylvania Senate sent a scathing letter to Applegreen CEO Robert Etchingham last week following The Keystone’s reporting that the company cut wages for workers along the Pennsylvania turnpike and replaced them with tips.

The company owns and operates 17 rest stops along the turnpike and claimed these changes were a temporary trial. 

State Sen. John Kane (D-Delaware), a former plumber and business manager with Plumbers Local 690, opened the letter by asking the Applegreen CEO if he too was willing to accept a pay cut. 

“If you cannot afford to pay your employees a fair wage without leaning on customers to subsidize your payroll, then you should be in business and you should not certainly be doing business in our Commonwealth,” the lawmakers said in their letter.

(Photo: Sean Kitchen)

Congratulations to the nearly 1,000 UPMC Magee nurses who unionized over the weekend.

They voted to join the Service Employees International Union Healthcare Pennsylvania (SEIU HCPA) by a 402 to 305 margin, and became the first UPMC nurses to successfully unionize. It was also one of the largest union elections for nurses across Pennsylvania in recent memory. 

Workers have their own reasons for unionizing, and these nurses are pushing for safer patient staffing ratios, more time with their patients, and to have a seat at the table with management. They’re also pushing for retention so they can have longer careers at the hospital. 

My coworkers and I are absolutely overjoyed to finally win a union voice for our patients, our profession and our community,” Jenna Berry, a registered nurse at the Magee-Women’s Cancer Center with eight years of service to UPMC, said in a statement. 

“We were incredibly inspired and thankful for the overwhelming support from our community, patients and elected officials. With continued support, we call on UPMC executives to respect the voice of the clear majority and begin negotiations with us right away.”

(Photo: Bob Brooks for Congress)

Bob Brooks, a 20-year Bethlehem firefighter, and president of the Pennsylvania Fire Fighters Association, which represents 8,000 firefighters across Pennsylvania, made a splash on Tuesday after launching his campaign to unset US House Rep. Ryan Mackenzie. 

Brooks received endorsements from US Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), US House Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-Allegheny), and Lt. Gov. Austin as well as the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) and Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 32 BJ.

As always, feel free to email me at seankitchen@couriernewsroom.com if you have any tips or events that you may have interest in covering.