CWA Hospital Workers in Utah Win Concessions with Petition Drive

Should workers be charged to park at their place of employment? Members of Utah Health Workers United (UHWU-CWA Local 7765) were fed up with the practice and demanded that the University of Utah Health and Clinics (UUHC) provide compensation to cover parking. Members delivered a petition with thousands of signatures to UUHC management late last month, which also addressed concerns over pay transparency and inadequate sick leave.

Parking has long been an issue of contention at UUHC. Workers at the main University of Utah campus paid over $6.4 million in parking expenses to their employer in fiscal year 2023. The UUHC administration has agreed to distribute stipends to all eligible hourly employees beginning July 1, a win for the union. However, organizers warn that this does not address the current plan to raise parking fees annually through fiscal year 2028.

“Admin will claim they gifted us this stipend out of the goodness of their own hearts, but in reality it’s simply a reaction to our budding collective power. Had they cared about the egregiousness of the parking system, it would have been implemented decades ago. We, the employees, through our union and collective voices, made them care,” said Ashley Boyd, a UHWU-CWA member who works at Huntsman Mental Health Institute.

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This post originally appeared on cwa-union.org.