In August 2024, facilities maintenance workers at Piedmont Athens Regional Hospital in Georgia voted to unionize with the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 926 in a historic 20-9 victory. This marked the first-ever creation of a union at Piedmont Healthcare, the largest hospital system in the state. Until last year, the hospital had not faced any unionization efforts from its workers. This changed when plant maintenance engineers at Piedmont Athens Regional Hospital decided to take action in response to deteriorating workplace conditions.
Facilities maintenance workers at Piedmont maintain the hospital’s critical infrastructure, including HVAC systems and electrical equipment, but they have been subjected to understaffing and abusive management practices for years. Chris Carr, a worker and union organizer with the IUOE Local 926, told Liberation News that Piedmont had allowed frontline supervisors to abuse maintenance engineers for years.
“For starters it’s a contract,” said Carr when asked about the union’s demands. “[We] want them to negotiate.”
Piedmont, however, has refused to negotiate. Instead, Michael Burnett, CEO of Piedmont Athens Regional Hospital, has hired notorious union-busting law firm Jackson Lewis — a firm that has also helped repress union efforts at Dollar General, IKEA, the University of New Mexico, and dozens of other corporate and institutional employers.
Carr and other workers report that Piedmont has unilaterally changed workers’ shifts, ignored paid time off requests for as long as a month, and withheld annual bonuses specifically from union organizers.
“They came in and gloated about it, thought it was funny,” said Don, a longtime Piedmont worker, commenting on the denial of bonuses. “We didn’t think it was funny.”
All of this is illegal under federal labor law, and Carr, alongside the Piedmont workers, has submitted seven counts of unfair labor practices to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), for which Piedmont Athens Regional is currently under investigation. Many workers have quit their jobs due to the retaliation, and the hospital has refused to replace those employees, deliberately making life even harder for the remaining workers.
Despite the retaliation, workers have been putting up a fight. Beyond the NLRB petitions, Chris Carr also attached a trailer to his truck hauling inflatables depicting Piedmont leadership as greedy corporate executives strangling their workers to wring out as much money as possible. He has driven it around Athens and to other Piedmont-owned hospitals to raise awareness for the union struggle. The union also launched a community solidarity petition, which had 305 signatures as of April 20.
On April 11, workers with the IUOE Local 926 hosted a rally outside Piedmont Athens Regional. The rally was supported by the United Campus Workers of Georgia, students and faculty from local universities, and Athens residents. They were joined by workers in the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades and by other IUOE chapters in Georgia. Attendees of all backgrounds were energetic and driven, waving handmade signs and leading chants of “Get up and get down, Athens is a union town!” and “Hey hey, ho ho, this corporate greed has got to go!”. People in cars passing by honked excitedly in support, and medical staff returning from lunch break showed their solidarity with the maintenance engineers as well.
“Workers make up 99 percent of the population… We are the ones that know best for our workplaces. If they wanna organize, if they wanna unionize here, people should support that decision. It’s a democratic decision,” Oscar Morales, organizer with IUPAT, told Liberation News.
In a leaked internal video, Michael Burnett told employees: “Piedmont is 100% union-free, and that’s very important to us.” Georgia itself has one of the lowest unionization rates of any state, with just 3.8% of workers belonging to a union. That’s less than half of the national unionization rate of 9.9%. The steadfastness of Piedmont Athens workers may soon change that, potentially paving the way for a union wave in Georgia’s healthcare sector.
Piedmont has a virtual monopoly on healthcare in Georgia, owning 26 hospitals, 100 urgent care and QuickCare centers, and hundreds of other physical locations across the state. In addition to the union-busting, workers at the Piedmont Athens Regional Hospital state that the hospital recently outsourced an entire department of housekeeping service workers.
“This affects everyone, whether you’re union or non-union,” said Carr when asked why others should get involved in supporting the Piedmont workers. “If these guys negotiate themselves a good contract, they’re able to uplift the workers around them.”
Feature image: Rally in support of the Piedmont Athens Regional Hospital facilities maintenance workers. Credit: Liberation photo
