The Spark

the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist

“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx

Washington, D.C.:
Hospital Nurses Underpaid

Nov 27, 2017

Nurses at Washington, D.C.’s United Medical Center hospital and nursing home in Anacostia are having an arbitrated raise and back pay held up by the mayor. The nurses have had no raise in five years. The nurses also raise the problem of under-staffing.

Meanwhile, the city has paid five million dollars to a consulting firm contracted to run the hospital. The city reimburses two of the company’s executives $4,700 a month to fly back and forth from their homes in Florida and North Carolina, pays the rent for their apartments at National Harbor, and even reimburses them for their gas and electric bills. The hospital board member who directs the city’s health care finance department said, “Hospital operations, that task pays well.”

Damn well–for the executives, but not for the nurses!