WASHINGTON—Big cities and hospitals that mandated vaccines for frontline workers during the pandemic have unwittingly become the impetus for a new opposition force. A group of leaders from police and fire departments, EMS, and other related healthcare professions, created a new coalition to empower frontline workers to fight back against public policies that hurt their…

New South Wales (NSW) Premier Dominic Perrottet has pledged to introduce stricter penalties for those who assault frontline health and emergency workers, following an NSW Sentencing Council report recommendations. This will take the form of new offences which treat the assault of these workers separately from common assault, similar to the offences associated with assaulting…

About 1,000 workers from a variety of professions held a silent rally in Quebec City on Oct. 15 to protest against the province’s COVID-19 vaccination mandates. Using the rallying cry “Code White,” an emergency colour code send out by health-care staff when they face a violent situation and need backup, the event called on front-line…

Healthcare workers—unhappy with the lack of compensation for their sacrifices during the ongoing pandemic—gathered in Anaheim March 24 to protest Kaiser Permanente’s lower-than-expected annual performance payouts. The rally was among 29 held at Kaiser Permanente facilities statewide. Members of the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West  said the bonus pay they received was 15 percent…

Costa Mesa city council approved a hazard pay urgency ordinance March 16, requiring grocers and retail drug stores to boost the salaries of frontline employees during the COVID-19 pandemic. The ordinance, which takes immediate effect, requires stores to increase the hourly wage of frontline workers by $4 for 120 days. It applies to stores with…

BUENA PARK, Calif.—As the ongoing pandemic continues to hit Southern California hard, Orange County Fire Authority (OCFA) paramedics are sharing the struggles they’re facing on the frontline. Climbing COVID-19 numbers, coupled with a limited intensive care unit (ICU) capacity at area hospitals, has taken a mental and physical toll on emergency medical (EMS) workers, said…

Vials of the COVID-19 vaccine have begun distribution throughout Orange County’s MemorialCare health care system, giving hope to COVID-19 frontline workers. “This vaccine is the light at the end of the tunnel for all of us,” Dr. Hubert Wong, Orange Coast Medical Center’s first doctor to receive the vaccine, said in a press release. “I…