UC seeks to limit striking hospital workers

By MARY ANN MILBOURN / ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

The state of California will go to court Monday seeking to restrict union workers in critical health and safety positions from joining a planned two-day strike this week at UCI and four other UC medical centers, according a press release from the UC Office of the President.
California’s Public Employment Relations Board, which oversees collective bargaining activities for public employers, will ask for the temporary restraining order on behalf of the UC System, the release said.
 
“It is highly inappropriate to threaten services to patients as a tactic in contract negotiations,” said Dwaine Duckett, vice president for systemwide human resources at UC.
The unions, however, have already put a contingency plan in place so that patient care will not be endangered, said Todd Stenhouse, a spokesman for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299, one of the unions planning the hospital walkout. Those workers include staffers in the pediatric intensive care unit, the intensive care unit and the burn unit.
 
“If an emergent need comes up, these workers would do whatever is necessary to protect patient safety,” he said.
 
He said the positions the state is seeking to restrain only involve 22 people out of AFSCME’s 13,000 members. The union’s service employees, including custodians and cafeteria workers, also plan to join the strike.
 
The restraining order is the latest salvo as the two sides gear up for the 48-hour strike, which is scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday.
 
In anticipation of the strike, UCI announced Friday it has canceled about 70 elective surgeries and will not accept ambulance deliveries of non-trauma patients. The hospital, which is in the city of Orange, said it would also limit patient transfers from smaller medical facilities.
 
AFSCME members, who have been working without a contract since last fall, are seeking an improvement in wages and increased staffing to provide better patient care.
 
UCI spokesman John Murray said the union rejected an offer that would have given raises to 92 percent of the employees who now earn an average of $45,770 plus benefits. He said current staffing properly meets patient needs.
 
About 1,750 of the union members, which include respiratory therapists and surgical technicians, work at the UCI Medical Center. That is about 40 percent of the hospital’s staffing.

[Source]: OC Register