Blood on the Picket Line

The American Red Cross phlebotomists, who draw blood from donors, are on strike in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, while thousands more ARC workers across the country are out as well. I took this picture as a solidarity rally was coming together. The OPEIU (office workers' union) brought in two bus loads of members and "Ratty" the inflatable rat (read: The Boss is a rat), and they marched around the premises chanting union slogans. Ratty has been given only half his air here. The phlebotomists are represented by HPAE (Health Professionals & Allied Employees)

I took many pictures during the rally but I chose this as my blip because it has several items to talk about. The is in an area that overflowed with thriving factories for the century ending in the 1970s, but which now uses its remaining industrial architecture as jazz clubs, luxury apartments, and offices, or leaves them as empty hulks. The rusted stacks and building at center was a dress factory in its day. The rooftop water tank is a fairly rare thing in Philadelphia, and probably was allowed to remain only with a special waiver. It's standing over luxury apartments where factory workers once toiled. Between the two old buildings is the Comcast Tower about a mile away, recently built and the city's tallest. Just beside that is an advertising blimp that was wandering the sky during the union rally. The Red Cross building is off-camera, but is a 2-storey, modern building on a former industrial site.

The phlebotomists are striking for both their own sakes (pension, insurance, staffing levels) and for the sake of patient safety. Unpaid donors give blood to the Red Cross, and in turn sell it, making $2 billion a year on the operation (2/3 of its revenue). "Seventy-one cents out of every dollar that Red Cross spent on program services in its fiscal year ending June 30, 2010 went to operating its blood services program; less than nine cents of every dollar went to domestic disaster relief operations," according to HPAE. In spite of the profit it makes and the focus it puts on blood collection, "The FDA has fined Red Cross $37 million since 2003 for blood safety violations. The most recent of these FDA fines was issued in June 2010 for $16 million," HPAE states. According to an investigative report in the New York Times (July 17, 2008), "In some cases, the lapses have put the recipients of blood at risk for diseases like hepatitis, malaria and syphilis."