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What Has the Potential to be More Damaging to Your Health System than a Labor Strike? Two Strikes in One Year

Session Number T14  Session Level B-I

Louise Dixon
Vice President and Principal
Carolina Public Relations
Charlotte, NC
ldixon@carolinapr.com

Candace Elkins
Executive Director, Marketing and Business Development
Appalachian Regional Healthcare, Hazard System Center
Hazard, KY
celkins@arh.org

Hollie Harris-Phillips
Vice President of Corporate Strategy
Appalachian Regional Healthcare
Lexington, KY
hharris@arh.org

Hear the story of how Appalachian Regional Healthcare negotiated two union contracts, expiring only months apart. Discover how the organization aligned its communication processes and implemented effective crisis communications and community relations campaigns during both labor strikes. From violence on the picket line, intervention by two governors, strategic pressure from outsider unions, and resolutions passed by county elected officials in support of the unions, the events reported by the media created a whirlwind, formed through the faces and voices of striking healthcare workers and hospital management.