United Healthcare Workers of Kentucky

Advocating for Hospitals and Clinics which Put Patients and Staff First

United Healthcare Workers of Kentucky is the union for healthcare staff at public hospitals and clinics in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and is a chapter of United Campus Workers. In the past year, UK Healthcare workers have been organizing for respect while UK Healthcare administration has reduced staffing levels, refused to offer hazard pay during a pandemic, and continued to pay non-competitive salaries. Why is the premier healthcare institution in the Commonwealth of Kentucky cutting corners? We deserve better. Our patients deserve better. This is why UK Healthcare workers are organizing as United Healthcare Workers of Kentucky to win patient-first staffing and respect for UK Healthcare staff! Join us!

Safe Staffing:

Bring staffing levels to an appropriate level by hiring more staff and offering them higher pay. The chaos of understaffed units puts all patients and staff at risk. Safe-staffing will do more than any other measure to create a safe work environment and raise patient outcomes at UK Healthcare.

Compensation and Retention:

Improve staff retention and job satisfaction by increasing compensation through the implementation of an increase in base pay; guaranteed annual cost of living increases; performance based raises based on personal and not unit performance; longevity raises which reward staff loyalty and experience; and certification raises which reward staff for gaining new skills and education. Offer differential pay for: weekend work, if pulled not in your home unit, and cross-cover if you do more than one person's job. Last, parking should be free for all staff.

Sick Policy and Paid Time Off:

Terminate the current occurrences policy and create a new paid time off policy based on the actual needs of patients and staff. The current occurrences policy forces staff to work while sick which is dangerous to both patients and staff. If the administration trusts us as staff to tell when a patient is sick, they should trust us to know when we are sick ourselves.

Workplace Safety:

Install metal detectors and do a full re-assessment of safety protocols so as to implement measures to better protect staff and patients in the case of emergency.