When it comes to the health care sector, unions literally save lives.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began in the United States, nursing homes have been ground zero for the illness, accounting for one in six COVID-related deaths. Now, a new study shows that unionized nursing homes across the country had a 10.8 percent lower COVID-19 mortality rate among residents than their nonunion counterparts, as well as a 6.8 percent lower COVID-19 infection rate among workers.

“With more than 75,000 COVID-19 deaths among residents in nonunionized nursing homes during our study period, our results suggest that industrywide unionization would have been associated with approximately 8,000 fewer resident deaths,” write the study’s authors. Such is the cost of the hyper-exploitation of nursing home workers, and union busting by some of their employers.