nurses ended up going on strike on, uh, at 7:00 AM on Tuesday, November 17th. it's also important to note that. They were very explicit that they were going on strike. Because the hospital wasn't giving them the resources they needed to actually provide good care to their patients. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, 800 nurses walked out on strike in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
As concern rises about the return of the measles and cuts to healthcare staff and budgets, this edition of The Labor Jawn Podcast from February, 2022 is especially timely and a double hit of labor history in two. the year was 1940. That was the day that Grapes of Wrath opened in movie theaters the year was 1999. That was the day that Bruce Springsteen was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I'm Chris Garlock, and this is labor History Today. I'm Rick Smith, and this is Labor History.
In Two on this day in labor history, the year was 1940. That was the day that Grapes of Wrath opened in movie theaters adapted from John Steinbeck's Pulitzer Prize winning novel. John Ford directed the film, which starred Henry Ford as Tom Jode pleased with the adaptation Steinbeck stated quote, it pulled no punches and was in fact harsher than the book. It is considered one of the greatest films of all time.
Like the book, the film focused on the plight of poor white tenant farmers fleeing Oklahoma for a better life. In California, the Joes were devastated by dust bowl conditions, bank foreclosures and mechanization. During the Great Depression, they joined thousands of other families heading west on Route 66 to advertised farm jobs that never materialized. The family gets stuck in new deal resettlement administration camps, and ends up on both sides of agricultural workers Struggle.
They narrowly escaped starvation and state police at the time of its release. The Grapes of Wrath was critically acclaimed for its depiction of the poor, but the associated farmers of California condemned it as communist propaganda. Steinbeck visited resettlement camps as part of his research union organizing and police violence unfolded during the Salinas lettuce strike, which began as he wrote Woody Guthrie's Classic Ballad of Tom Jones soon followed the movie's release.
Recent critics contend that agricultural adjustment administration policies were more to blame than banks. Others assert. It presents a sympathetic portrait of white tenant farmers at the expense of black sharecropper. Historian Eric Loomis adds that Steinbeck and Ford both disappear the plight of non-white exploited labor already in California.
Nonetheless, the film and movie both provide a deep look into the misery created by the Great Depression labor history in two, brought to you by the Illinois Labor History Society and the Rick Smith Show. You deserved everything you got. This is a union city that is a Philadelphia tradition. Seize the means of podcasting. Oh God, the bosses crushed us. Let me tell you one thing else. In oldie timey times who said it? Kanye West or Tom Pay, we will not have blood dog reality for that one.
A pleasure of the flesh is in solidarity. The scab buster. It's gonna be wholly unprofessional. Keep together strong. Let that be your mantra. My name is Sam James. I'm occasionally the co-host of this program, and I am joined today and always Forever. By who with? I'm Gabe Christie and I'm never the co-host of this program. Really? Nope. Who was who? I've been talking to the last 15 episodes. I don't know. It's my first time. It was a man of your build who? Was deliciously sexy? You?
Uh, it could have been my doppelganger Abe Christie. Mm. So it's probably Abe Kriste? Yes. We're gonna go a little bit more modern than we have been of late. I'm excited. So, uh, it's the strike at the St. Mary Medical Center. Oh, okay. In 2020. Uh, so I guess in, I, if someone is listening in the far, far distant future, uh, we should explain what was going on in, uh, November of 2020 that, yeah. Might have had an issue. Our children might be listening to this. It's true.
Uh, when this gets archived by the Library of Congress. Mm oh, yes. And preserved. Yeah. They've been talking to me about that. Yeah. Uh. The, uh, so in late 2019, there was this new virus that, uh, started showing up around the world. Mm-hmm. Chlamydia? Yep. Uh. And, uh, they gave it the really inventive name of the Coronavirus disease, 2019 mm. Or COVID-19. Ooh. Uh, so it is 'cause we're still in the midst of it, which is fun.
Uh, I highly infectious, infectious respiratory ailment, which can be spread by aerosolized particles and human breath, uh, attacks the lungs leading to, or pri well. The first variance primarily attack the lungs by like, by the time you listen to this, there's probably gonna be a variant that like turns you into a snake or something. Mm. So, so as covid cases rose, so did hospitalization rates. Weirdly enough, there was some correlation there.
Hmm. Uh, and especially early on, before any vaccines were available, um, basically the only effective treatment that they had or the only available treatment, um, was bleach. Yeah. And sunlight. Yeah. If you can inject sunlight, uh, drink lots of sunny d uh, 'cause UV light kills it. Uh. So the only effective treatment was, uh, basically, oh, this is gonna be, bring back so many bad memories. Yeah. Why did you do this?
Um, we could have just talked about a bunch of people in the 18th century getting killed by policemen on strike, but you had to bring this up. We had to do this one. It could have been such a joyful episode, Gabe. This was supposed to be a short one, but it's not gonna be 20. 20 was the longest year of it. My life. It was. It's still going. And the shortest year, actually it was weird. Yeah, it, it was like some weird, like black hole, you know?
It was like you're on the edge of the black, but you're also inside of it at the same time. Yeah. Well, it. We had like a collective year long panic attack, so it felt really long. Yeah. In the time, but looking back at it, mm-hmm. It felt like a moment. And so I'm sure that that's great for our mental health. Well, I had the time of my life, I would tell you. Yeah. Basically the only effective treatment was.
Uh, basically you just had to put the patient on as much life support as you could and then let the body defend itself. Hmm. Um, which it's a, not necessarily an elegant solution, but it was all that was available. It was all we had. Yeah. Uh, but it meant that there were a lot of patients in a lot of beds needing a lot of care. And then in steps, America's private healthcare system. Yay. Ladies and gentlemen. Uh, would you all please stand, uh, for our overlord?
Uh, so, um, a lot of hospitals in the US focus more on streamlining and efficiency than patient care. Yeah. Which, um. Makes them not great places to work. Uh, and so for the nurses at St. Mary's Medical Center, uh, that meant that they were doing more and more work with already limited staff. Um, and they, uh, basically just had to, or they kept getting. Tasked with more and more, uh, without any extra support. Uh, but they were, they kept calling them heroes. Oh, oh, essential workers.
Definitely. Yes. Yes. They are our heroes, Gabe. Mm-hmm. And we set it on the news. We put up little signs. We had little clappy clap parades when they go into work. Yeah. And that's, that's what they've been asking for. That's what, that's all they wanted. Yeah. Is like, can you please call me a hero? Yeah. We can just be heroes. Yes. Just for one year. It's how do you pay your bills? Yep. Mm-hmm. So well, yeah. Oh yeah, exactly. Mm-hmm. I do that sometimes I, when I write a check.
I was an essential worker, you know it's true. Was a grocery worker during 2020 and Yep. When I would have to go to a grocery store mm-hmm. Like the one I work at to actually buy food, I would use a check and I would just write where it says the money part. Mm-hmm. I would just write Hero. Yep. And they would accept it. That's how it works. Mm-hmm. And then I woke up. From, because I, I passed out because I couldn't get my insulin 'cause it's $500 a vi.
So yeah, this is, this is, I can see no problems with this system at all. Uh, ah, you, Gabe, just go into it. Okay. I'm strapping myself to this chair. Okay. Uh, so Bill Engel, who is a surgical nurse with 17 years experience, uh, at St. Mary's, uh. Was quoted saying that up on the floors, we're looking for certain ratios on the medical surgery, surgery, telemetry unit. It should be four to one, maybe five to one, or five to one. There are days we have six patients, each.
Six patients, each, seven patient patients each. Wait, that's, that's five, uh, nurses or. Hospital staff to a patient, you're saying? Uh, five patients to a nurse. Oh. Oh, okay. Ooh. Ideally you want four patients to a nurse. Oh, okay. They're working with seven patients to a nurse, Jesus Christ. So like more than double God then, or almost double because I can do math.
The year before, um, in 2019, they had formed a union or the nurses at St. Mary's had formed a union, um, with the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses into Allied Professionals or PA Paap Paap, uh, Paap. So. Uh, when all of, or when Coronavirus hit, they were still in first contract negotiations. Oh. Oh. So they had a union, but they didn't, they didn't have a contract. Yeah. They didn't have a contract, which meant they still didn't have good union wages. Yeah. Um, so when Covid hit, uh.
They, uh, the nurses were also making six to $7 an hour less than nurses at other hospitals. Only 20 minutes away. Really? Yeah. So they were dealing with insane numbers and dealing and low wages. Uh, and so before the strike happened, there was just a mass exodus from this hospital of nurses quitting. 'cause they didn't want to deal with it for terrible wages. Yeah. Um, but you can't blame 'em. So the. Uh, nurses ended up going on strike on, uh, at 7:00 AM on Tuesday, November 17th.
The, it's also important to note that. The, even though the hospital and some other folks in the area tried to slander the nurses saying that like, well, you shouldn't be going on strike now. Yeah. Because the patients need you. Mm-hmm. They were very explicit that they were going on strike. Because the hospital wasn't giving them the resources they needed to actually provide good care to their patients.
Yeah. Um, 'cause that's the other side of it that like, it's not just these nurses are getting burnt out, it's, they're getting burnt out 'cause they're trying to provide top quality care and they, like you are physically unable to do so. Yeah. And all hospital management cares about is, is keep it in the, the keep it the black, right? Yeah. Keep it in black. Yeah. Keep it in the black. Yep. And Yeah, it's all about money. Everybody's just a pile of numbers on a spreadsheet.
Yeah. So I mean, it's okay for, for these hospitals and insurance companies to, it's okay for them to care about money, but when the nurses care about money or the staff, then they're greedy. Then it's, yeah. Then it's greedy that they don't care about their patients. Yeah. Uh. About 800 nurses walked off. Uh, it was over 700 from St. Mary's itself. And then they had, uh, supporters from other PA Snap or Past Snap. Uh, and it was about 85% of the union membership, uh, voted yes to Strike Uhhuh.
Okay? So pretty good. Super majority. Um, the, another interesting thing that happened was the, uh, they actually had former patients come out and join the picket line with them. Oh really? Uh, there was one guy that they interviewed, uh, who sounded like he had been released about a month or so before, and he was pretty explicit being like, the people on this picket line saved my life. Yeah. I owe it to them to be out here.
Yeah. The. If the patients are saying that, yes, you should be striking, then you should probably be out on strike. Uh, so that strike was also only supposed to last two days. Um, 'cause I should also point out the way nurses strikes and strikes at hospitals generally work is you have to provide, uh, the hospital with notice that you're going on strike. So that Oh, okay. Um, because you can't interrupt patient care. Fuck yeah, man.
What the, uh, we're giving you two days warning to hire scabs, basically. Um, but the Hot Well, and St. Mary's is a nonprofit, is the other side of it. Oh, okay. So like, they're not, I mean, they're making money off of it, hand over fist, but they're, that's not technically their goal. Yeah. Um, so the. Uh, so you have to provide notice that you're going on strikes so that they can hire scabs to, uh, cover for you while you're out on strike.
But the, what, the way that that ends up hurting the hospital is, uh, and they're usually, I think they're usually called agency nurses. The scabs and they cost Yeah. Pinkerton agency. Yeah. Uh, they cost way more than your normal staff nurses. Ah, yeah. So, 'cause you have to pay for travel, pay for room and board. Uh, and then there's usually the wages are usually like two or three times what the staff nurses make, but the hospital. Hired scabs for five days.
So the union only wanted to strike for two, which just meant that the strike lasted for five days. Oh, okay. And so they kept a picket line going for five days straight. Okay. Um, finally on, I. Uh, that Sunday at 7:00 PM I believe, uh, a shift went back in and returned to work. Uh, hospital didn't cave immediately. The negotiations continued for the first contract, and finally on December 20th, I wrote down 2022. Actually December 20th, 2020. I'm like, damn. So a month later.
Uh, which in contract negotiation time, like that's not insane. So they got their contract on December 20th, 2020 with better wages, uh, set raises, which is important. So they have annual raises, uh, after the. Contract goes in. Uh, but those staffing issues still persisted. Wow. So they won some and they lost some. Yeah. And also, I mean, not being as terrified about putting food on your plate every night Yeah. Makes you a better nurse. And because yeah, you can focus more on your job.
You know, this job would be really great if there weren't any patients. Yeah. Uh, yeah. So wear a mask, get vaccinated. Support your nurses. Fake news, fake news. I'm Rick Smith, and this is Labor History. In Two on this day in labor history, the year was 1999. That was the day that Bruce Springsteen was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Two years later, an article in Rolling Stone Magazine read. For nearly four decades, Bruce Springsteen has been a working class hero.
A plain spoken visionary and a sincere romantic whose insights into everyday life, especially in America's small town Heartland, have earned comparison to John Steinbeck and Woody Guthrie. At the core of Springsteen's music are the struggles of working people. Often his music connects to past lyricists and novelists and the history of the working class. His 1995 album, the Ghost of Tom Jode opens with a song about the iconic hero from Steinbeck's Classic, the Grapes of Wrath.
In 2006, Springsteen released an album of covers of the folk music legend Pete Seeger, and perhaps his most well-known song. Born in the USA Springsteen tells the story of a Vietnam vet struggling to find work. In another song, he hauntingly weaves a tale of the radical conflict that emerged when Vietnamese immigrant fishermen moved into Galveston Bay, Texas. Springsteen's songs chart the history of American work from labor on the Erie Canal to the Mighty Steel forges of Youngstown, Ohio.
His 2012 album Wrecking Ball captured the devastation caused by the great. Recession of 2008 destroyed our homes. They lift their on the planes labor history in two, brought to you by the Illinois Labor History Society and the Rick Smith Show. For more information, go to labor history youtube.com, like us on Facebook and follow us on the Twitters at labor history in two. Here's a bonus track which brings together Steinbeck and Springsteen, the ghost of Tom Jode.
Bruce Springsteen and Tom more singing the Ghost of Tom Jode based of course on the main character in John Steinbeck's, the Grapes of Wrath. That's it for this week's edition of Labor History Today. You can subscribe to LHT on your favorite podcast app, even better if you like what you hear. Sure. Hope you do like it in your podcast app. Pass it along and leave a review. That really helps folks to find the show.
Labor history in Two is a partnership between the Illinois Labor History Society and the Rick Smith Show. That's a labor themed radio show out of Pennsylvania. Very special thanks this week to the Always Terrific Labor John Podcast, which tackles the working class history of Philadelphia and the surrounding world with. Comprehensive research and off-color absurdity Co-hosted by Labor historian Gabe Christie and Musician Young Sam James.
Labor History today is produced by the Labor Heritage Foundation and the Cowmen. Its Initiative for Labor and the working poor at Georgetown University. You can keep up with all the latest Labor arts news. Subscribe to the Labor Heritage Foundation's free weekly [email protected]. For labor history today, this has been Chris Garlock. Thanks so much for listening. Keep making history and we'll see you next time.