UCI Medical Center strike winds down

The hospital performed 24 surgeries Wednesday, compared with as many as 40 on a normal day.

By BERNARD J. WOLFSON / ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

ORANGE – Hundreds of health care workers returned to picket lines outside of UCI Medical Center on Wednesday as their 48-hour protest against staffing levels and proposed pension cuts wound down.

Keith Snodgrass, an organizer for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union, which spearheaded the strike, said the number of pickets was “slightly” higher than on the first day of the strike.

Striking health care workers at UCI Medical Center in Orange rally outside the hospital Tuesday, joining others in the UC hospital system on strike.

John Murray, a spokesman for the hospital, said 500 of the 1,230 employees scheduled to work the day shift Wednesday did not show up for work. That was up from 410 who stayed off the job Tuesday, out of 1,200 who were scheduled to work.

Murray said the hospital performed 24 surgeries Wednesday, compared with as many as 40 on a normal day. A 15-bed inpatient unit that had been closed because of the strike was re-opened Wednesday, he said.

[Source]: OC Register