In Brief: Labour Council boycotts Shoppers, Rexall / HOOP chief calls for pension changes / More trouble for US hospitals

The London and District Labour Council unanimously decided to encourage its 30,000 members to boycott Shoppers Drug Mart and Rexall Pharmacies. The decision stems from an aggressive campaign by the two chains to derail a new bill that would dramatically lower generic drug prices. … John Crocker, President of the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOP) is calling upon government to change the pension rules to allow for large multi-employer defined benefit plans. “I worry that as a country we are undoing decades of success at rasing the standard of living for retired people,” he said April 14 before the Conference Board of Canada’s Pension Summit. Crocker called upon all governments to “get the rules right” and take leadership in forming new sectoral plans. If multi-employer defined benefit plans were formed to serve various sectors of the economy, “no longer would the full weight of funding be on one set of corporate shoulders,” he said. …Two more U.S. hospitals are in big financial trouble. Founded in 1849 to serve the poor, New York’s St. Vincent’s Hospital filed for bankruptcy protection on Wednesday. The hospital board had voted to halt inpatient services and transfer or close outpatient clinics eight days earlier. The hospital had weathered bankruptcy in 2005, but lost $80 million last year. Meanwhile, in Washington 184-bed United Medical Center was taken over by the District of Columbia after it defaulted on loans to the city. The city will operate the hospital until a new owner can be found.