Calif. Hospital Workers Picket Amid Stalled Contract Talks

By Sindhu Sundar

Law360, New York (May 21, 2013, 7:19 PM ET) — Some 13,000 hospital employees from one of the largest trade unions in the country began their two-day strike Tuesday picketing five University of California medical centers as union contract talks remain stalled after a yearlong negotiation process.

The hospital workers from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union launched into their strike at the centers in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Irvine, San Diego and the University of California Davis medical center in Sacramento, according to Todd Stenhouse, a spokesman for the AFSCME.



The strike involves so-called “front-line” medical workers, who care for patients, protesting understaffing and other issues they say have plagued the hospital in recent years, since management diverted resources toward financing growing executive payrolls, according to Stenhouse. The workers’ contracts also expired in September, and they have been trying to renegotiate a new one without success for more than a year, Stenhouse said. The front-line employees participating in the strike include respiratory therapists, certified nurse assistants, surgical sterilization technicians and diagnostic radiologists, among others.



“Let me be clear, this strike is about patient care,” Stenhouse told Law360 Tuesday. “These are teaching hospitals and public benefit hospitals — they shouldn’t be turned into solely for-profit enterprises.

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Since 2009, executive payroll at the five Medical centers has increased by $100 million a year, according to the union, which argues that executives and management continue to be the fastest-growing group of employees, at the expense of hospital employees serving patients.



The UCLA health system fired back Tuesday, saying that the 48-hour strike would cost the hospital more than $5 million, a figure that includes both lost income as well as its additional costs to temporarily replace striking workers.

The UCLA center said it brought in some 550 replacement workers and had some administration staff take over for striking workers.

The center also delayed roughly a quarter of its surgeries that were scheduled to take place in the next two days, according to its statement Tuesday.



“Every effort is being made to ensure that the hospitals and clinics that are part of the UCLA Health System remain open and continue to deliver the highest level of patient care and safety through the duration of the strike,” UCLA Hospital Systems’ chief medical officer Tom Rosenthal said in the statement

Tuesday.

Employees belonging to the University Professional and Technical Employees unions also joined in the picketing Tuesday in support for the AFSCME union workers, according to the UPTE’s own statement Tuesday.

Tuesday’s strike followed a ruling by a Sacramento judge Monday that allowed most AFSCME’s workers to proceed with their planned strike, according to the statement.



“UC’s medical centers have made millions in profits and handed out lucrative raises to executives,” Jamie McDole, a UC Davis care manager, said in the UPTE’s statement. “Front-line workers make the university a leader in patient care, scientific discovery and education, but instead of rewarding them, UC is trying to undercut wages and retirement benefits.”

–Editing by Rebecca Flanagan.

[Source]: Law360