UPDATE (2:07 pm): Just after I finished writing the piece below, we received some great news from SEIU Healthcare PA: a bankruptcy judge today signed off on an agreement between Commonwealth and its creditor "to pay part of the wages owed immediately and to work toward full payment within three weeks."  Read more about the workers' victory here.

Over the weekend, we reported on the situation at Commonwealth Medical Center in Aliquippa, PA, which closed its doors last month and fired hundreds of health care workers without giving them proper notice or their final paychecks.  Last week, some of those laid-off hospital workers traveled to Chicago, where they demanded their backpay from the hospital's creditor, Bridge Finance Group, which is still paying Commonwealth's executives. 

The parallels to the Republic Windows saga here in Illinois are clear to see.  Some former Republic employees even joined the Pennsylvania workers as they protested outside Bridge Finance's Chicago offices last week.

Back in Aliquippa yesterday, a handful of the fired Commonwealth workers took another page out of the Republic playbook when they staged a sit-in at the closed facility.  According to a press release just out from KeystoneProgress.org, the Commonwealth executives ultimately called the cops on their former employees:

Four Registered Nurses, former hospital employees, joined by SEIU Healthcare PA Secretary-Treasurer Kim Patterson, Father Jack O’Malley of Pittsburgh and Scott Fabean of the Pittsburgh Interfaith Impact Network went into the building around noon to discuss the issue with hospital management. The delegation met with hospital officials for about an hour and a half. When discussions broke down, the delegation vowed to stay on the property until management agreed to pay them for the hours they worked.

Willie Felts (CFO) and John O’Donnell (CEO) from Commonwealth then called the Aliquippa police who removed the caregivers and their supporters from the hospital grounds.  

One of the nurses, Kathie Marino, situated their protest in the proper context: "It’s unfortunate when workers have to stage sit-ins to get what they earned. ... But workers across the nation are saying ‘enough is enough’ of executives looking out for themselves and not working families." Enough is enough, indeed.

The bankruptcy court that earlier approved the continuation of executive pay was scheduled to hear the Commonwealth workers' case this morning.  We'll follow-up with an update on the status of that hearing later today.

(Full disclosure: the SEIU Illinois State Council sponsors this website.)