UCI hospital prepares for employee strike

By COURTNEY PERKES / ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

UC Irvine Medical Center has canceled about 70 elective surgeries to prepare for a strike next week by patient care employees who make up 40 percent of hospital staff.

The 48-hour strike by Local 3299 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees is planned for Tuesday and Wednesday at all five UC medical centers. The union represents about 1,750 workers at UCI, whose jobs range from respiratory therapists to surgical technicians.
 
John Murray, spokesman for the Orange hospital, called the strike a “big disruption.”

The Orange hospital has 4,400 employees. Murray said the hospital will spend $2 million to $3 million to hire about 400 temporary workers. Beginning Monday, UCI, one of the three trauma centers in the county, will not accept ambulance deliveries of non-trauma patients. It will also limit the number of transfer patients from smaller hospitals.

“If somebody needs trauma services or there’s any doubt about it, we’ll take the patient. If it’s somebody with a broken leg, they’re going to go to another hospital,” he said. “We’re looking at this as basically a week-long effect on the medical center and its patients.”

Murray said about half of the canceled surgeries were outpatient, such as cataract or ear surgery. Karen Grimley, chief nursing officer, said postponing more involved surgeries creates a bigger hardship for patients.

“A lot of the elective procedures we do, such as hip or knee replacement, are major surgery that they’ve been planning for awhile,” Grimley said. “They have set up time away from their life to do that: Sending the dog to be boarded or family coming in to take care of them. We’ve created quite a disruption in that patient’s life.”

Todd Stenhouse, a union spokesman, said employees, whose contract expired in the fall, want fair wages and increased staffing across the UC system.

“They’ve been cutting corners on staffing,” Stenhouse said Friday. “Where you need eight people to do a job, they’re now asking people to do it with four. It may look great on a balance sheet but not if your Grandma’s in the hospital.”

Murray said the union rejected an offer that would have given additional raises to 92 percent of the employees who earn an average of $45,770, plus benefits. He said the hospital is properly staffed.

“It’s more than adequate,” he said. “It meets the needs of our patients.”

Murray said the union has been unwilling to accept pension reform that other unions have approved.

Across the UC system, the union represents roughly 13,000 health workers including: nursing aides, MRI technologists, diagnostic sonographers and pharmacy technicians.

In addition to UCI, picket lines will be set up in Los Angeles, San Diego, Davis and San Francisco. The strike begins at 4 a.m. Tuesday and ends at 4 a.m. Thursday.

The union’s service staff employees, including custodians and food preparers, will join the strike to show solidarity.

[Source]: The OC Register