Strike Services
With the size of the U.S. healthcare workforce doubling since 1990 has come a corresponding increase in the number of strikes and other labor disputes. Once again, Huffmaster became a pioneer in the industry by providing a full range of services designed to keep hospitals and health systems running so they can keep their promises to their patients and their communities. Our 100% commitment to continuous care and coverage means finding replacement nurses, technicians and support staff with the exact skills and experience required. In addition, our onsite contingency planning process provides a staffing matrix, a pro forma estimate of costs, and a detailed plan for orienting and training replacement staff prior to a strike.
Healthcare Strike
In the event of a labor dispute, it’s crucial for healthcare facilities to avoid service diversion, especially for essential surgeries or outpatient procedures.
Industrial Strike
In a strike scenario, companies can face significant disruptions that may impact the ability to maintain services or supply chains.
School Strike Staffing & Secuirty
Teacher strikes can significantly impact students, parents, and the community.
Replacement Personnel
When a work stoppage occurs, locating and managing the skilled and unskilled replacement workers needed to keep your business operational can serve as a daunting challenge. Huffmaster can help with complete strike staffing services, which encompass everything from developing your operational plan before a stoppage occurs to transportation, training, supervision, and administration of replacement workers.
Huffmaster works directly with our clients to ensure you have everything you need to plan, prepare and respond to crisis and strike staffing situations.
- Planning: Our planning process is built on the belief that your operational plan should dictate your security and replacement personnel needs – not the other way around.
- Preparation: If a labor interruption occurs, Huffmaster’s workforce (and applicable security officers) can arrive on site within hours of notification. Our team is ready to respond and execute at one or multiple facilities as needed.
- Response: Once your contingency plan activates, our team coordinates every aspect from notification of the temporary personnel to maintaining communication and reporting at every step.
Flexible Staffing Solutions
No matter where or when your stoppage occurs, Huffmaster’s national network of qualified replacement workers are ready to step in and support your continuing operations with skilled out-of-town replacement workers at one site – or multiple sites – including:
- Truck/delivery drivers, CDL-A licensed
- General labor/warehouse
- Forklift/hi-lo operators
- Mechanics/maintenance
- Skilled trades
- General office
- Healthcare professionals
- Teachers
- School support staff
When you need a low-skill, lower cost solution, Huffmaster can supply qualified local replacement workers to minimize the travel, housing, and per diem costs associated with utilizing “out-of-town” temporary employees.
For more information or to discuss your specific strike staffing needs, contact Huffmaster’s Strike Services division at 800.446.1515.
Contingency Planning
Huffmaster’s pre-strike contingency planning focuses on Keeping Business in Business™ – no matter how severe the labor dispute. Our plans are comprehensive and address all issues, including the need for replacement workers, outsourcing selected services, stockpiling raw materials or finished goods, strike security and more.
Our contingency planning services are also fully customizable. Applying experience gained from labor disputes across almost every industry – for an impressive national client list including Pepsi Bottling Group, Kraft Foods Group, and Bosch – we can help you develop a plan that meets your company’s specific operational needs.
Our contingency planning can support your organization in one of three ways:
- Plan development: Not sure where to start? Our experienced labor dispute consultants can assist in the development of every aspect of your plan. We will suggest a structure, detail strategies and tactics, and provide recommendations based on Huffmaster’s “best practices” developed by managing numerous union strikes each year.
- Plan facilitation: Looking to streamline the process? Our professionals will meet with your entire management team, or with individual members, to answer questions or address specific strike-related problems.
- Gap analysis: Need an objective assessment of your fully-developed plan? Our experts will perform a gap analysis on your complete or nearly complete plan to identify areas that have not been addressed and to suggest alternative tactics that can be more readily executed.
Ana Nipirakis is the Director of Special Projects at Huffmaster Companies, managing high-level corporate assignments for both the strike and staffing divisions.
With a background in mathematics and formal education in business administration and management, Ana oversees Huffmaster’s database management, software implementations and upgrades, as well as all contracts, proposals and cost analysis pro formas.
Ana joined Huffmaster Companies in 2012 as an Executive Assistant, providing sales and operational support. Quickly adapting to the organization and taking on responsibility in several departments, she was promoted to Administrative Manager in 2014. As Administrative Manager, Ana oversaw billing, scheduling and compliance during deployments. In 2015, Ana was promoted to Special Projects Manager, at which time she initiated and obtained the organization’s Joint Commission certification, as well as began assisting with contingency planning and needs assessments for industrial and security deployments. Ana was promoted to Director of Special Projects in 2017.
As Director of Special Projects, Ana oversaw the upgrade of our customer relationship management database, implemented the upgrade of all document storage and management, upgraded the organization’s onboarding document management process, facilitated implementation of a new vendor management system, and managed the organization’s applicant tracking system upgrade.
Ana directly handles all compliance for the healthcare staffing division, including credentialing, licensing and certification. Ana is also responsible for performing all needs assessments and financial estimates for our healthcare facility clients.
Ana continues to work on site during strikes as a staffing coordinator, managing the processing, onboarding, and oversight of temporary replacement personnel. Ana manages Huffmaster’s relationship with healthcare facility executive management, the Joint Commission, and local Departments of Health during healthcare strike deployment.
Ana is an avid music lover and enjoys spending time with her extended Greek family and 6-year-old German shepherd mix Kahlua.
Pat Villerot is the Operations Manager for Huffmaster Companies, overseeing hundreds of field staff and coordinators deployed nationwide for our strike services, healthcare strikes and industrial non-strike staffing divisions. As Operations Manager, Pat supports the day-to-day operations of all field coordinators and manages logistics for deployed jobs, including lodging and transportation.
Pat oversees all post-deployment activities, serving as the lifeline for our field staff and liaison between our clients and coordinators. Pat also oversees security staff recruiting and frequently deploys on jobs with our field staff.
Pat began his career as an EMT, joining Huffmaster in 2011 as a Guard. He worked his way through the ranks of the organization, and has held several positions with increasing responsibility, including Project Coordinator and Account Manager for our protective services division, and Special Projects Manager for our crisis staffing services division. Proving himself an invaluable asset to Huffmaster, Pat was promoted to his current position in 2017.
Pat is an active member of ASIS International and the Detroit ASIS International chapter and is working toward his Certified Protection Professional (CPP) certification.