Springfield Mo.—Women working at Cardinal Health are pushing back against company harassment of pro-union workers, and, making matters worse, workers say, the company attempts to let slide complaints of sexual harassment. In the midst of a union organizing campaign with the Teamsters Local 245, women workers at Cardinal Health say they have faced sexual harassment, workplace intimidation, and illegal punishment for being pro-union.
Women in the union-organizing campaign have reported management allowing sexual harassers in the workplace to stay at work while the women organizing were fired shortly after coming out as publicly pro-union.
People’s World spoke with Haylee, a nuclear pharmacy driver who, for more than two years, has transported life-saving nuclear pharmaceuticals to clinics and hospitals across Missouri. The products she transports are used in cancer treatments, medical screenings, imaging, and heart stress tests, in which the doses cost in the thousands of dollars per use.
Haylee, 28, reports that 2-3 months ago, management at Cardinal Health hired a male driver to train with her. This driver is 60 years old. While alone, she alleges that the older male worker continually made lewd comments about her body, told other workers how much he wanted to be in a relationship with her, and told her explicitly that he “loves pussy.”
These comments, which made Haylee feel uncomfortable and unsafe, led her to report the worker to management. After Haylee stood up for herself and other women at the workplace, management conducted a short investigation in which the company’s Human Resources Department (HR) called Haylee, asking for her side of the story.
“The call was super short; I had explained what happened, and HR gave me no insight into what was next.” After the investigation, the worker received no punishment and returned to the job as if nothing had happened.
In response, the women workers and some male allies came together to build pressure on the company. Other women went to management and told them they would never allow their sisters, daughters, or friends to work there if they kept the accused worker on the job. Management only told them they’ll “try to do better next time.”
The allegedly offending worker finally quit working at Cardinal Health, and the workers believe it was due to the constant pressure from the employees telling him they weren’t okay working with him and that he was banned from driving with the women alone.
Advancing months later into the midst of their union campaign, Haylee explained that she was cornered by management and supervisors. She reports that “they started ranting to me about how unionizing was bad for the workers, how everyone would be paid less, how there are now knives in their back, and how he feels like he should get rid of all the workers.”
Haylee said, “I admitted to them of being pro-union on Friday, and that Sunday I get a call that I’m fired. The main feeling I’m getting is betrayal for not being able to speak to them in that call, but sexual harassers get to talk to them and stay at work. We are unionizing to get the treatment and raises we deserve from this billion-dollar company. Management and corporate wouldn’t listen to us, so union is the only way.”
After being fired via phone on Sunday, Haylee told People’s World, “Even my manager was fired 30 minutes after me because the workers were organizing and corporate blamed him. Even though we liked him and enjoyed having him around, that upset me.” She then reported that HR talked to all of the workers and threatened their jobs, saying, “If you unionize and go on strike, you’ll all lose your jobs and your insurance.”
Haylee says, “I’ve been working here for more years, and after our promised raises, I’ll only [be] making 34 cents more than new hires. We’re working with radioactive material, and we don’t even get hazard pay. We’re on call, rotating by the week, and could leave to work at any moment. Corporate changed our healthcare and doubled the cost to use it, because they claimed we used the plan too much and abused it. They change our bonus incentives to being less money without telling us in advance, and Cardinal Health Corporate is fined millions of dollars a day for their contribution to the opioid crisis.”
Though workers at Cardinal Health are facing attacks from their employer, they have only grown stronger together. Workers have drawn together a petition of their demands, and that includes a demand for the reinstatement of fired workers. With the community, they turned the petition into the bosses and are giving them a period to do the right thing before turning up the heat further on their campaign.
The major question now is, will Cardinal Health, a company valued at over $50 billion, respect its workers’ federal right to organize, or will it continue to attack them while workplace sexual harassers glide by?
People’s World reached out to Cardinal Health in Springfield, Missouri, for a comment, but was put on hold and then instructed to contact corporate.
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