SEIU Local 1199WI

home | action center

Take Action - Make Your Voice Heard

Members work with celebrity to get out the vote

Having a Union gives us a voice in a wider arena where decisions that affect our jobs and our patients are made: legislatures and regulatory agencies. As health care professionals speaking with a unified voice we have the expertise and the credibility to help bring about change where it is needed. It's time to take political action and call for the laws and resources that we need to improve our jobs and the patient care we can provide.

What You Can Do

Political decisions largely determine staffing levels in our facilities, the quality and cost of our benefits, and whether our patients have access to the care they need. As united health care professionals we need the latest information, member involvement and a strong political action fund to make a positive impact on these decisions. If you are interested in being more involved, click here.

Who are my Legislators and Where do They Stand?

Many of the most important decisions about our lives and our work are made by elected officials. Find out who your state and federal legislators are, how to contact them, and what their record is on issues that matter to health care professionals.

Assure Safe Nurse Staffing in Hospitals

A recent study conducted by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania convincingly documents what most nurses already know: higher patient loads for nurses cause more unnecessary patient deaths and much higher levels of nurse burnout. More recently, an authoritative study by the prestigious Institute of Medicine directly linked inadequate staffing with medical errors that cause tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths and injuries. In Wisconsin, we are calling for legislation that guarantees safe nurse staffing in hospitals. See the latest research on nurse staffing and its impact on patient care. Also, take action to support federal legislation to support safe staffing in acute care facilities.

Bill Neubert Marching to Lobby against MOT

End Mandatory Overtime

Mandatory overtime began as a rarely used response to unforeseen emergencies, primarily in acute care hospitals. Now it is part of a deliberate strategy in many hospitals to operate with less direct care staff. Mandatory overtime endangers patient health and has become one of the primary reasons many nurses are leaving the profession. Learn more about how forced overtime drives dedicated caregivers out of the field and take action to support a statewide ban on mandatory overtime.

End Short Staffing in Nursing Homes

Extensive research shows that nothing is more important for quality of care in nursing homes than adequate staffing. Yet Wisconsin's regulations on staffing levels are 30 years out of date and our nursing home staffing levels are among the worst in the country. Residents in nursing homes are suffering as a consequence of short staffing. Learn more about Wisconsin's short staffing crisis and take action to support nursing home staffing reform.

Address the Crisis in Health Care

America's health care system is in a state of crisis. Families are losing healthcare coverage as employers end benefits or pass exhorbitant costs onto their workers. At the same time unnecessary deaths resulting from short staffing and lousy working conditions for health care workers are increasing. See the SEIU Wisconsin State Council's fact filled presentation on what's gone wrong in American health care.

Privatizing Social Security

The current presidential administration recently made an all out effort to radically alter Social Security. Fortunately, this ill conceived campaign failed. Get the Facts on Social Security and find more information.