ADVISORY: Workers and Students to Protest UCI Staffing Cuts Tuesday

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 17, 2016

CONTACT: Todd Stenhouse, (916) 397-1131, [email protected]

Orange: As many as 150 UC Health Workers, Students and others are expected a rally and picket at UC Irvine Medical Center Tuesday to protest recently announced staffing cuts.

Who: UCI Health Workers, Students, and Elected Officials, including:


 
• AFSCME Local 3299 President Kathryn Lybarger
• UC Patient Care Technical Unit Vice President Monica De Leon.
• Orange County Labor Federation Executive Director, Julio Perez

• Taylor Chanes, External Vice President for UC Student Association from UCI

What: Protest and Rally AGAINST Layoffs at UC Irvine Medical Center

When:   Tuesday, October 18, 2016. Pickets from 11am.-3 p.m. (Rally from Noon-1 p.m.)

Where:  UC Irvine Medical Center, 101 The City Drive South, Orange, CA 92868

All told, UCI has announced 175 layoffs—mostly frontline patient care workers, including nurses and technical workers in the emergency trauma, psychiatry, radiology and other departments.

The cuts come despite UCI posting a $70 million profit from operations in 2015^[i], with rising numbers of patient admissions and outpatient visits^[ii]. In a recent survey of more than 5,000 UC Service and Patient Care workers, 91% reported concerns about understaffing^[iii].

“For a public, tax-exempt medical system to put profits before patient care—particularly at a time of chronic understaffing and rising need from patients–is both appalling and dangerous,” said AFSCME Local 3299 President Kathryn Lybarger. “UCI Health needs to get its priorities straight and put these experienced caregivers back to work.”

Lybarger and other UC Healthcare workers have expressed concern about dramatic growth in UCI Health’s management staff, which grew at four times the rate of frontline care professionals between 2010 and 2014^[iv].   And while UCI does have job openings, it has made no effort to place its newly displaced workers into jobs for which they are qualified.

Among the workers who have been displaced and are expected to speak at Tuesday’s rally, are a recently laid off worker with 30 years of experience at UC, and one of two pregnant women who will lose their UC sponsored health insurance just days before their expected delivery dates as a result of the layoffs.

UCI Medical Center CEO Howard Federoff announced the layoffs last week. Federoff will be paid nearly a million dollars this year, including six figure bonuses tied to pre-determined profit targets^[v].

^{[i] UCIMC posted a $68.7 million operating profit (income minus expenses) in 2015. http://finreports.universityofcalifornia.edu/index.php?file=med_ctr/14-15/Med-Centers-14-15-report.pdf}

^{[ii] Between 2014 and 2015, patient admissions at UCIMC grew by 5%, and outpatient visits grew by 11%. http://finreports.universityofcalifornia.edu/index.php?file=med_ctr/14-15/Med-Centers-14-15-report.pdf}

^{[iii] AFSCME Local 3299 systemwide survey of over 5,000 Service and Patient Care workers, Spring 2016. https://afscme3299.org/new-survey-results-reveal-staffing-crisis-at-uc/}

^{[iv] AFSCME analysis of UC data requested by UCB professor emeritus Charles Schwartz. Available online through his blog post “Financing the University—Part 24: Management Bloat at UC – How Big is it? Where is it? Why is it?” (http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~schwrtz/Part_24.html). Health Science OSC:M10/M05 and SMG FTE’s grew by 24%, while Professional support staff grew by just 6% .}

^{[v] On Jan. 21, 2016, the Regent’s approved UCI CEO and Vice Chancellor Howard Federoff’s compensation plan. The approved plan includes a $800,000 base salary + a 20% ($160,000) Clinical Enterprise Management Recognition Plan (CEMRP) target award, for total expected cash compensation of $960,000}