Wednesday, February 15, 2012YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- Blood collection workers in a 19-county region that includes Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties say donor safety is driving a strike that already led to the cancellation of what which the Northern Ohio Blood Services Region of the American Red Cross describes as its largest blood drive
The more than 200 blood collection workers and mobile unit assistants represented by Teamsters Local 507 issued its intent-to-strike notice Feb. 2 over what it characterized as donor safety issues. The union says the Red Cross is insisting on cutting health-care benefits and reducing staff to unsafe levels, which they claim is necessary to keep profits growing.
Collections technician Casie Huddleston picketed the Red Cross in Austintown Tuesday. She is a phlebotomist and serves as a charge nurse for the Red Cross. She also performs the "double red cell" procedure, which involves using an apheresis machine to collect two units of red blood cells, the most transfused blood component, from a donor.
"Donor safety is one of our biggest issues," she said. On some occasions blood drives have "overpresentation," when more donors come in than are expected, "which is great -- we absolutely love that the donors come in," she said.
"However, the one thing that we're requesting is that we have enough staff to process the donors that come in," she continued. "If we're expecting 25 donors to come in and 50 come in and we only have enough staff to comfortably take care of that 25 we feel that we're jeopardizing the safety of [those donors] by not having enough staff."
The work stoppage already resulted in the cancellation of the annual blood drive scheduled for Valentine's Day at the Executive Caterers at Landerhaven in Mayfield Heights, which the Northern Ohio Blood Services Region describes as its largest blood drive.
"We have contingency plans we can implement to continue to hold some blood drives while the strike goes on," said Christy Sabaka, communications manager for the Northern Ohio Region. If a blood drive is cancelled, she said, the Red Cross will contact donors and let them know possibly where they can find another open blood drive.
To meet the needs of 57 local hospitals, the Northern Ohio Region must support 12,000 transfusions each week. That means the region needs to collect 900 units of blood each day, the Red Cross said in a statement issued last week announcing the cancellation of the Landerhaven drive.
People who give platelets – a component of blood – at three Red Cross donor centers will also be unable to donate. “Platelets are often vital in the treatment of many illnesses, including cancer. Because platelets have a shelf life of only five days, being unable to collect for even one day is concerning,” Sabaka said, The work stoppage could also hamper employees’ timely participation in a national training system to upgrade blood drive operations, she noted.
Potential donors need to be made aware of the "serious problems" at the Red Cross, said Al Mixon, president of Teamsters Local 507. The Red Cross was fined more than $30 million by the Food and Drug Administration over blood safety practices, including a $9.6 million fine just last month for mishandling or misplacing donated blood and, in some cases, transfusing potentially infected blood into patients, the Teamsters said.
No new talks were scheduled as of Tuesday morning, Sabaka said.
Copyright 2012 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.