Orlando Health cuts pay for Nurses, extends corporate sponsorship to Orlando City Soccer

Well, isn’t that nice? Orlando Health is extending its corporate sponsorship as a “health partner” of the Orlando City soccer team who will soon play in the MLS.

The designation as “official health partner” did make me wonder if it is because the land where the new soccer stadium will be built in Parramore is literally toxic — contamination that will need millions of dollars of clean-up and years before risks are diminished. I wonder if Orlando Health is even aware of the contamination?

More than likely, it’s just a corporate sponsorship and a business transaction — and that makes it worse. What does that say to all the nurses and staff at Orlando Health who are seeing their paychecks slashed at the same time Orlando Health is paying to have its name on soccer uniforms and signs around the field?

Orlando Health announced they cut the pay for the night and weekend shift impacting thousands of employees across 8 area hospitals. Nurses say the pay cuts will result in individual losses of upwards of $600/month, or $7,000-$15,000/year. A majority of the employees affected are Nurses, who are already notoriously underpaid and overworked in Orlando.

I know nurses who work in the Orlando Health network and I learned real quick that these pay cuts are devastating and that communication with workers was non-existent on the matter. According to an online petition, corporate members of Orlando Health denied requests for negotiations and gave less than 1-month notice for employees to acclimate to this substantial financial blow. All of this caused nurses to begin pushing to form a union as well.

But hey, at least the nurses will now receive special ticket offers, right?

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