Professor John Logan commented in a news article on the unionization of UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital and was quoted in other news stories
Professor and Chair of the Labor and Employment Studies Department John Logan shared his thoughts on UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital becoming the first hospital within the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) system to unionize, while UPMC hired the law firm, Ogletree Deakins, in an effort to prevent the union from forming.
UPMC is one of the largest non-governmental employers in Pennsylvania. As a nonprofit institution, it avoids paying millions of dollars annually in property taxes to the city of Pittsburgh. However, UPMC employs a variety of consulting and legal firms to advise the organization on various matters. One of the firms UPMC works with is Ogletree Deakins, which is known for advising employers on anti-unionization strategies.
According to Professor John Logan, “Companies encourage employers to fight, to do everything they can to fight a campaign.” The professor highlights the scale of these efforts, noting that UPMC's spending on Ogletree Deakins' representation “could be in the millions, and that’s not an exaggeration.”
UPMC employees are disappointed to realize that the company they work for is willing to allocate significant financial resources to a corporate law firm in order to resist unionization. Elizabeth Jardini, a nurse at UPMC, said in an interview: “We understand what your priority is and that it’s not us or the community that you serve.”
Read all the news stories in which Professor John Logan was quoted this month: